Having failed to remove migrating birds from a list of possible carriers, a group of medical, veterinary and avian experts have called for monitoring not only east China, where the first H7N9 cases were reported, but also northern and northeastern provinces, which lie along migratory routes.

The new virus is closely related to a form that affects Eurasian migratory birds, although it is difficult for those birds to transfer the virus to humans, the experts concluded. They said the virus may have spread through an intermediary organism.

As the virus completed its evolution prior to the outbreak and stayed in the bodies of the intermediaries, it would have been impossible to detect at an early stage, the experts said at a recent meeting in Beijing.

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