A spokesperson from the Ministry of Agriculture named Yang yesterday said there were no new confirmed cases in the latest outbreak of bird flu in the western province of Qinghai.

"We have surveyed more than two million domestic birds in the province and haven't detected any contagion," Dang Chenyan, director of the provincial animal epidemic prevention headquarters, said yesterday.

He also confirmed that the disease has not spread to any humans.

The province is well on its way to finishing the vaccination of its poultry flock after the ministry confirmed last Saturday that the deaths of migratory birds in Gangcha County on May 4 were caused by H5N1 avian influenza, Dang said.

The number of dead bar-headed geese reached 178 on "bird island" in Qinghai Lake -- the largest saltwater lake in China -- and in nearby areas, according to a ministry statement.

The provincial government allocated 3 million doses of vaccine as part of emergency measures to bring the disease under control, Dang said.

Other steps included enhancing monitoring areas to prevent people and domesticated fowl from coming into contact with wild birds, said sources from the provincial animal epidemic control headquarters.

Following an urgent circular from the Ministry of Agriculture last weekend, animal epidemic prevention centers nationwide have put contingency plans into place and tightened monitoring.

In central China's Henan Province, a round-the-clock bird flu surveillance network has been put into action to feed early warning information to animal health staff and decision makers, according to a Xinhua report.

The report quoted the provincial centre for disease control and prevention as saying the odds were rather low of there being an outbreak of bird flu in Henan.

Apart from preventive efforts, high summer and autumn temperatures make it difficult for bird flu viruses to survive due to their sensitivity to temperature, according to the report.

Gan Qiangzhong, deputy magistrate of Long'an County in the southwestern province of Yunnan, said yesterday that the situation in the region was normal.

Dingdang Township in Long'an County reported China's first known H5N1 case on January 27 last year.

"We have all our prevention measures in place even without being reminded of the Qinghai case," he told China Daily.

After the last outbreak, many Long'an farmers left their small courtyard farms to either build large farms, where conditions are far improved, or to raise flocks under the guidance of their contracted processing enterprises, said Gan.

(China Daily May 25, 2005)