The outbreak occurred on a farm in Shuangqing district, Shaoyang city. The outbreak killed 4,500 of the 7,850 chickens the farm owned. Local authorities slaughtered 17,828 birds in the vicinity after the outbreak, according to a statement from China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
No cases of human infection with the H5N1 virus have been reported in Hunan.
The outbreak comes at a time when Chinese authorities are trying to halt the spread of a new coronavirus, which caused 304 deaths and more than 14,000 infected in the country, and which was initially detected last December, in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, which borders Hunan.
Avian influenza causes serious respiratory diseases in birds and is contagious among humans. The virus was first detected in 1996 in geese in China and is particularly deadly to birds.
The possibility of transmission of avian influenza between humans is low, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Most human H1N5 infections appear after prolonged and close contact with infected birds.
However, avian influenza has a mortality rate in excess of 50%, far above severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), also known as atypical pneumonia, and which has a mortality rate of 10%, or the new coronavirus, which has a 2% rate, so far.
Between 2003 and 2019, the WHO reported a total of 861 confirmed human cases of H5N1 worldwide, among which 455 died. In China, there have been 53 human cases of bird flu infection in the past 16 years, and a total of 31 dead.
The new coronavirus today caused the first death outside of China, a Chinese from Wuhan who was traveling in the Philippines.
In addition to mainland China and the Chinese regions of Macau and Hong Kong, there are more confirmed cases of infection in 24 other countries, with new notifications in Russia, Sweden and Spain.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Thursday an international public health emergency (PHEIC) due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus in China.
Several countries, including Portugal, have already repatriated their citizens from Wuhan, a city with 11 million inhabitants, which was placed under quarantine last week, with exits and entrances banned by the authorities for an indefinite period.
In recent days, several companies have suspended air links with China. Russia, North Korea and Vietnam have closed borders with the country, while some countries have stopped issuing visas to Chinese citizens.
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