Bird flu outbreak in Sichuan

China has confirmed its first bird flu outbreak in southwestern Sichuan province, AFP reported. The disease has killed 1,800 birds in a village in Dazhu county last month, and was identified as the H5N1 virus, the agriculture ministry said. It was the 32nd outbreak in poultry since early 2005. Twenty-eight outbreaks have been reported in the last three months, putting China at risk of a national epidemic, threatening the world’s biggest poultry industry. China has reported seven human cases, three of them fatal.