The two new outbreaks were in the counties of Zepu and Urumqi in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, the agriculture ministry said.

A total of 6,547 chickens were infected including 2,747 which died, while another 320,000 chickens were culled.

The outbreaks were discovered on November 9 and confirmed on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

This marks the first time in the current spate of outbreaks in China that one has been discovered in the far northwest.

The nine earlier outbreaks reported in China over the past month have been in northeastern Liaoning, Inner Mongolia in the far north, the eastern province of Anhui and central Hunan and Hubei.

China said earlier Tuesday it was trying to vaccinate all its billions of poultry in an effort to combat the spread of bird flu.

"China is trying to vaccinate all poultry nationwide," Xinhua news agency quoted State Chief Veterinarian Jia Youling as saying. "The fees will be covered by the government."

Jia, responding to questions on a live web forum, said China currently has about 5.2 billion poultry as livestock, while the nation each year raises about 14 billion.

Across the nation health authorities are now producing more than 100 million doses of bird flu vaccine a day but some areas are still reporting shortages, the Ministry of Agriculture said on its website.

Meanwhile, a team of WHO experts was travelling to Xiangtan county in Hunan, where three people are suspected to have contracted bird flu last month.

One of the victims, a 12-year-old girl, died. Chinese authorities have been unable to determine if she perished because of the virus.

The girl's nine-year-old brother also fell ill but was discharged from hospital on Friday. The siblings reportedly ate infected chicken and lived in a village in an outbreak area.

The other victim, a 36-year-old school teacher, injured himself while cutting raw chicken. He remains hospitalized but is in stable condition.

"They're going to try to talk to the people affected," said Roy Wadia, a World Health Organisation spokesman in Being, of the five WHO experts, who include epidemiologists, on their way to Xiangtan.

"They'll probably seek to meet the patients or their families."

Two other WHO experts were also in Beijing on Tuesday studying laboratory samples from the patients, including those taken from the girl before she died.

Wadia said the WHO has also requested information and offered assistance in a fourth suspected case in China -- a chicken farmer in Heishan county in Liaoning who fell ill with serious pneumonia.

Despite the multiple outbreaks in China authorities have yet to confirm a single case of a human infection. More than 60 people have died in Southeast Asia since 2003.

Scientists warn that continued contact between infected birds and humans might eventually result in the virus mutating into a form that could be easily passed on between people, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express