China Takes Measures to Prevent Bird Flu

China ordered emergency measures Saturday to prevent an outbreak of avian flu after investigators said migratory birds found dead in a western province this month had been killed by the virus.

Nature reserves were closed and local authorities were ordered to watch wild birds for signs of disease and impose quarantines if necessary, the official New China News Agency said. It said farms near migration routes were ordered to immunize their birds, and the public was warned to “stop contact with poultry.”

The order came hours after the Agriculture Ministry announced that migratory birds found dead May 4 in the western province of Qinghai had been killed by the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. The news agency said some had come from Southeast Asia but it didn’t say what species they were.

The regional death toll in the latest bird flu outbreak rose to 53 last week when another fatality was reported in Vietnam.

The World Health Organization warned Thursday that the virus potentially posed a great threat to humans if it developed the ability to spread easily from person to person. There is no evidence so far of such a change. Most human cases have been traced to contact with sick birds.

Health experts worry that birds that cross China on migratory routes stretching from Siberia to New Zealand could spread the virus to the country’s vast population of domestic fowl.