A senior bird flu control official said in Hefei, Anhui Province, Saturday that the bird flu virus which hit the eastern province early July has not mutated and remained the same as when it affected the country in the spring outbreak.

Wei Jianzhong, member of the experts panel of the provincial bird flu control headquarters, said the laboratory test proved that the virus was the H5N1 strain which is a stable type of the bird flu virus

The province saw four sites suffering bird flu in the spring: Ma'anshan City, Guangde County, Jieshou City and Fuyang City. The recent fifth was in Juchao District of Chaohu City, near one of China's largest freshwater Chaohu Lake.

The headquarters has ordered close monitoring of bird-to-human infection despite so far no such cases were found. The health authorities are monitoring to scrutinize any flu-like cases, unidentified pneumonia patients and deaths.

The 37 people who had close contact with dead chickens or worked in the outbreak site were removed from medical observation Saturday. But the provincial health bureau cautioned lower health authorities to keep vigilant against any human infections and medical check and home visits to those working in poultry farms should be strictly carried out.

The provincial government asked provinces and cities next to Anhui to lift their ban over the entry of poultry products from the province. Six provinces and Shanghai Municipality have all ordered suspension to ship in poultry from Anhui since the outbreak on July 3.

Officials with the government of Anhui said the province has done proper measures to successfully control the bird flu and other parts of the province are not affected except the outbreak area.

Anhui is a major producer of poultry, with an annual output of 800 million birds, 860,000 tons of bird meat and 1.2 million tons of eggs. About 40 percent of its production sells to neighboring provinces and cities.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2004)