FOUR Asian nations confirmed the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu while China said it faced a long struggle to contain the disease before the arrival of flu-carrying migratory birds in spring.
Afghanistan, India and Myanmar said tests had now confirmed H5N1 caused recent outbreaks in birds, while Malaysia reported two new cases in a wild bird and dead chickens.
In India, veterinary workers began throttling more than 70,000 birds to try to control the latest outbreak there. Hundreds of people were also tested for fever.
"There is no time for niceties. The birds have to be killed as fast as possible," said Bijay Kumar, animal husbandry commissioner of the state of Maharashtra, where bird flu resurfaced this week in backyard poultry.
Bird flu has spread with alarming speed in recent weeks across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, leaving some impoverished nations such as Afghanistan and Myanmar appealing for protective clothing and other basic equipment.
The more it spreads, the greater the fears of the virus mutating into a form that could easily pass from one person to another, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.
"Now the virus is becoming crazy. The virus is becoming unpredictable," said Noureddin Mona, the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) representative in Beijing, referring to bird flu's rapid spread in recent weeks.
Although hard to catch, people can contract bird flu after coming into contact with infected birds.
Denmark became the latest European country to report a case of highly pathogenic bird flu in wild fowl. But it has yet to confirm it is H5N1, which has killed about 100 people in Asia and the Middle East since 2003.
Neighbouring Sweden confirmed its first outbreak this week.
Three young women who died in recent weeks in Azerbaijan, on the crossroads between Europe and Asia, are thought to be the latest human victims of the virus, which also killed a dog in the former Soviet state.
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