China and Vietnam have reported fresh outbreaks of bird flu -- the virus that has killed thousands of birds, despite efforts to contain it.
The latest Chinese outbreak, discovered on October 26th, killed nearly nine-thousand chickens and prompted officials to cull nearly 370-thousand other birds in Badaohao, a village in Liaoning province, east of Beijing. So far, no human cases of bird flu have been reported in China.
In Vietnam, more than three-thousand poultry died or were culled this week in three villages in Bac Giang province, north of the capital of Hanoi. The areas are under close watch and authorities have imposed a quarantine. Health officials fear bird flu could evolve into a strain that can be passed from human to human, triggering a worldwide pandemic.