China has found no evidence of a new strain of H5N1 bird flu in its southern provinces and said on Thursday there was no need to share virus samples with the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States said in a report released this week they had detected a new strain of bird flu, first isolated in the southern Chinese province of Fujian last year, that may have started outbreaks in Southeast Asia.
But China rejected the report, published in the U.S.- based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, saying there was no evidence of major changes to the virus since 2004, and there was no information about new virus to share with WHO.