Around three million domestic fowls in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have been inoculated following an outbreak of bird flu, according to local authorities.

Nearly 1,000 chickens and ducks were reported to have died suddenly on a poultry farm in the Xincheng Village of Jiuyuan District in Baotou City on September 27. The national avian influenza laboratory later confirmed that the H5N1 virus was found in samples of the dead poultry and the remaining 1,046 fowls were slaughtered to curb the outbreak. No human infections were found.

By September 28, 26,232 chickens and ducks within a radius of three kilometers from the farm had been culled.

A batch of bird flu vaccines, 2.5 million milliliters in total, reached Baotou on October 2 for the inoculation of all the poultry in the city.

Meanwhile, the 969 chickens and ducks infected with the H5N1 virus that had been sold by the farm have been found. No new cases were reported.

China reported two new outbreaks of bird flu in the past fortnight, which killed about 2,000 domestic poultry in the autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui.

(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2006)