China reports new bird flu outbreak in Shanxi

By February 3, some 15,000 chickens on the farm in Shanxi's Yijing township, part of Yangquan city, had died and on Tuesday they were confirmed to have the H5N1 strain, the report said.

Teams from the Agriculture Ministry had been sent to Yijing, where more than 187,000 chickens were culled, and the outbreak had been brought under control, it said.

Scientists fear that bird flu, which has killed at least 88 people around the world since it re-emerged in late 2003, could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a deadly pandemic.