China needs better bird flu surveillance - experts

BEIJING (Reuters) - China needs to improve its surveillance of the bird flu virus after a recent rise in human cases, but there are no signs the country is on the verge of an epidemic, U.N. experts said on Wednesday.

China reported eight human cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in January, five of whom died, which appeared independent of any known case in birds.

Hans Troedsson, the World Health Organisation's China representative, said their risk assessment had not changed following the new cases as it was normal during the winter months.

"Why we don't expect this is the beginning of an epidemic is these cases are geographically distributed and there are no links between them," he told the Foreign Correspondents Club of China.

"All of them have been exposed either to sick or dead poultry or wet markets. There is plausible explanation for how it can be transmitted. There's no indication of human to human transmission."

One problem is the lack of reports of bird outbreaks.

"What it tells us is we still have a very serious situation in the agriculture sector," he said. "The virus is well-entrenched and circulating in the environment.

"It is of great concern for us. It's something we are raising, both the WHO and FAO, with the government," Troedsson added, refering to the Food and Agricultural Organisation.

With the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of backyard birds, China is seen as critical in the fight to contain bird flu.