More than 2,000 chickens were culled after an outbreak of a deadly bird flu strain in Tibet, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Thursday.
FAO spokesman Zhang Zhongjun said in a telephone interview with Cable TV here that the outbreak took place Wednesday in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, an autonomous region in western China.
Zhang said the disease was believed to have spread from other areas near Tibet.
A total of 2,608 chickens found infected with the deadly H5N1 were killed to contain the spread of the disease, Carolyn Benigno, an animal health officer with the FAO in Bangkok, told Kyodo News. Of them, 133 died of the virus.
Benigno said the FAO was notified around noon by the Agriculture Ministry in Beijing.
No human infection has been reported and the situation has come under control, the FAO said.
Benigno said the infected areas have been sealed off while other regions under threat have been disinfected. Vaccination has been given to chickens in all farms in the region, she said.
Avian flu outbreaks have been reported earlier this year in Qinghai and Xinjiang, both provinces bordering Tibet. In Qinghai Province, more than 6,000 migratory birds were killed.
The Agriculture Ministry declined to comment on the incident when contacted by Kyodo News.
