China's latest outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza, which killed 545 ducks and chickens in the central province of Hunan, has been stamped out, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday.

Zhang Zhengwang, professor at Beijing Normal University's College of Life Science, said yesterday that it was suspected to have been caught from wild birds in contact with domestic stocks in the provinces' two largest freshwater lakes, Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake.

The contagion, the third in China reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) this week, was first detected among 13 household farms in Wantang Village, Shebu Town of Xiangtan County, the county veterinary bureau said.

The National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory identified the infection as the H5N1 strain on Tuesday and the result was sent to the OIE.

"Immediately after the epidemic broke out, Xiangtan County initiated contingency schemes, culling 2,487 domestic birds within a 3-kilometre radius and vaccinating 43,750 others in the vicinity," the veterinary bureau said in a statement.

They also implemented control measures including quarantine and disinfection of infected farms, according to the ministry's report to the OIE.

The ministry said it sent a working group to Xiangtan upon receiving a report of a suspect case from the local government, to guide prevention and control efforts.

"No new outbreak site has been found in the province," the ministry said in a statement yesterday.

(China Daily October 27, 2005)