New strain of bird flu found in western Canada

A new strain of avian flu has been found in the Fraser Valley region in Canada's western province of British Columbia, media reports said Tuesday.

The new strain is different from anything that has been seen in the area before, but scientists cannot rule out that the strain could be a subtype of the H5 virus that killed many people in Asia.

"It is not the H7 we have seen in the area before," said Sally Greenwood, a spokeswoman for the Center for Disease Control of British Columbia.

"We do not know what it is. There's a possibility it could comeback as being an H5 subtype. But even if it does, it does not mean it is going to be the same virus as the one in Asia."

Some 19 millions chickens and turkeys in the Fraser Valley were culled after an especially aggressive strain of H7 avian flu began killing off birds in Late February.

Source: Xinhua