Almost a thousand chickens were killed in the latest outbreak. WHO announces that after two and half years China is setting aside its reticence and is sending blood samples taken last year from birds killed by the H5N1 bird flu strain.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A fresh bird flu outbreak killed 985 chickens in China's Inner Mongolia region, state-owned Xinhua news agency reported yesterday as the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a breakthrough in cooperation after mainland authorities began sharing long-sought samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus.

The discovery in a village near the city of Baotou prompted authorities to destroy 8,990 chickens in what is the latest in reported dozens of H5N1 outbreaks that forced authorities to destroy millions of birds in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus, which veterinary experts believe is carried by migrating wild fowl.

China has so far suffered 14 human deaths from bird flu, including one person who died in 2003 but whose infection was only confirmed through genetic testing this year. 

China is one of the most affected countries, but it has until now failed to provide the WHO with accurate and timely data and allow outside experts to intervene on its territory.

But something seems to be changing. The WHO yesterday announced that samples taken from some of the thousands of wild birds that died at Qinghai Lake (north-western China) in April last year have been sent to the US Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta for analysis.

"My understanding is they have been shipped to a WHO collaborating centre from the Ministry of Agriculture," WHO scientist Michael Perdue said.

Scientists have repeatedly expressed concerns that the virus—whose transmission has not yet occurred between humans—must undergo mutations and cause a pandemic that could kill millions of people.

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