China said on Friday there had been no confirmed human cases of bird flu in the country, but stressed it was unrealistic to expect the disease to be eliminated among birds, Reuters reported. It also confirmed a 12-year-old girl suspected of dying of bird flu in southern Hunan had died of pneumonia. China, the world's most populous nation, has billions of poultry, many living around the homes of farmers. Most human infections of bird flu are caused by people handling birds sick with the virus or through their droppings. "It's not realistic for our country to completely halt outbreaks of avian influenza," Jia Youling, the chief veterinary officer and director-general of the Veterinary Bureau at the Ministry of Agriculture, told a news conference. Since last week China has revealed three outbreaks of the virus, killing 3,800 chickens, ducks and geese in its north, east and south. The flight of migratory birds across China may spread the disease further afield, Jia said. "The movement of migratory birds is a grave threat to our country's efforts at prevention and control," Jia said. "During their movement, they have frequent contact with domestic poultry and could infect them." China was increasing monitoring of lakes and wetlands that host migratory birds, as well as centres of poultry raising, Jia added. But officials also stressed that previous reports of possible human infection in China were unfounded. "There have been no cases of human infection of H5N1," Ministry of Health official Chen Xianyi told the news conference. Chen said tests showed a 12-year-old girl who died in southern Hunan province, the site of China's latest bird flu outbreak, was the victim of pneumonia, not bird flu. Her 9-year-old brother also contracted pneumonia and was in a stable condition. --mor 1336 Local Time 1036 GMT
