A highly pathogenic bird flu outbreak has been found in a village near Huainan City in east China's Anhui Province, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) announced on Monday.

On November 6, 800 farm fowl died in Fanwei Village near Huainan. On November 10, a local veterinary department suspected the H5N1 strain of bird flu to be the cause of death. On November 14, the national bird flu laboratory confirmed these suspicions.

The local government launched its quick-response mechanism, blockading the epidemic zone and disinfecting people, vehicles and relevant goods going in and out of the village.

All the poultry in the epidemic zone have been culled and disposed of. Further, a total of 126,185 fowl within a three-kilometer radius of the epidemic zone have been culled and all poultry markets within a 10-kilometer radius of the epidemic zone have been closed.

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2005)