China reports H5N8 influenza outbreak among wild birds

Chinese experts have recorded an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N8 influenza among wild birds in the southwest of the country, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China said, Report informs.

The foci of the disease were identified in two regions of the city district of Nagqu in the northern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the PRC. According to the ministry, the local authorities destroyed 268 infected birds and took the necessary preventive measures in the places where they were found.

Avian influenza is an acute infectious viral disease that affects the digestive and respiratory organs and leads to the death of birds. As a rule, wild birds are the carriers. Most strains of this disease are not dangerous to humans.