China's window of opportunity to stop the spread of bird flu is narrowing, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, while the country stepped up checks on poultry nation-wide for signs of the deadly virus.
That window closed a bit more on Saturday, when China announced two new areas suspected of having cases of bird flu - one in the central province of Hubei and one in the southern province of Guangdong.
China confirmed outbreaks in the provinces of Hubei and Hunan to be the lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza on Friday, and announced four new areas of suspected infection - two in Anhui province, one in Guangdong and one in the city of Shanghai.
"We have repeatedly said there is a brief window of opportunity to act within China. This latest news strongly suggests that the window is getting smaller with each passing day," said WHO disease surveillance specialist Julie Hall.
Earlier this week, China confirmed an outbreak in the southern region of Guangxi bordering Vietnam. Bird flu has spread rapidly to 10 Asian countries, killing at least eight people in Thailand and Vietnam.
Chinese authorities have been culling poultry within three km (two miles) of infected farms, vaccinating birds within five km (three miles) and established national command headquarters, headed by Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, to battle the disease.
On Saturday China also halted exports from Anhui, Guangdong and Shanghai, following bans on shipments abroad from the other infected areas.
On the outskirts of China's financial hub, Shanghai, teams of inspectors descended on villages and markets without warning on Friday, residents said, seizing tens of thousands of fowl, spraying disinfectant and burning piles of bird dung.
At least 20,000 chickens had been culled in a single day at the Sanguantang Fowl and Egg Market, Shanghai's largest wholesale poultry trading station in an outlying north-eastern district of the densely populated city of 16 million, workers told Reuters.
At one village in the southern district of Nanhui, focus of Shanghai's suspected bird flu outbreak, residents complained of heavy-handed health officials who grabbed chickens without mention of compensation. "All our chickens were fine. There was nothing wrong with them. Look at me, do I look sick to you?" protested farmer Lao Gu.
"We've lost tens of thousands of yuan. It's the Party's fault."
The WHO was concerned about the environmental impact of the bird culls and urged that people involved "take suitable safety precautions" to help prevent the possibility of human infection. There have been no cases of people catching bird flu in China.
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