Beijing, Jan 27: China today confirmed that the virulent bird flu virus has hit the country's duck farms in southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, triggering a nation-wide alert against the deadly disease plaguing the Asia-Pacific region. "The latest death of ducks in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region was caused by the bird flu virus, but no infections in human beings have been found so far," the official Xinhua news agency quoted official sources as saying.

Right after the report of ducks dying in a farm in Dingdang town, Long'an County of Guangxi on Friday, the local government decimated 14,000 poultry three km around the duck farm, and quarantined all poultry five km around the duck farm, according to the law on animal epidemic prevention.

The National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory confirmed, after testing on samples sent in by the local government, that the death was caused by the deadly h5n1 strain of bird flu virus, the report said.
Bureau Report