China reports new bird flu outbreak in poultry

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has reported a bird flu outbreak in poultry in the southwestern province of Guizhou, state media reported late on Monday, the same day a woman died from bird flu in the south.

The poultry outbreak, which was first noticed on February 17 in the city of Zunyi, had killed 3,993 birds and triggered the culling of more than 238,000 birds, Xinhua said, citing the Ministry of Agriculture.

China has reported four outbreaks of the disease in poultry since December, when average temperatures across the country hit their lowest in decades. Bird flu tends to be more active in low temperatures.

With the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of farmers raising birds in their backyards, China is seen as crucial in the global fight against the disease.

China has also reported three confirmed human deaths from bird flu this year, in central Hunan province, the southern region of Guangxi and the latest in southern province of Guangdong.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)