Two new bird-flu outbreaks were reported Thursday in Central and Northwest China, prompting the culling of 90,000 fowls.

The deadly H5N1 strain of the virus is believed to have killed 662 birds in poultry farms at Xiaonan District, Xiaogan City of Hubei Province on November 5, and 32 chickens in Hotan of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on November 10, the Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement last night.

In the Xinjiang case the region's third outbreak following two in two other counties reported on Tuesday quarantine workers detected sick chickens at a local market and traced the source, only to find dozens of poultry had already been infected, according to the ministry.

Both Xinjiang and Hubei have started work on contingency measures, including culling 86,215 and 2,722 birds, respectively, in regions within a 3-kilometre radius of the outbreak sites.

In a related development, the country's quarantine authorities issued an urgent circular ordering inspectors at ports of entry and exit to step up efforts to prevent human infection of bird flu.

The circular said temperature- screening machines must be used at border crossings and passengers must fill out health-declaration cards.

Source: China Daily