India reports outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in Uttar Pradesh: OIE

PARIS (Reuters) - India reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus in a village in the northern province of Uttar Pradesh, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Wednesday. Nearly 190 birds died of the virus in a village in Amethi district, the Indian agriculture ministry said in a report posted on the OIE website. An epidemiological investigation was ongoing and an intensive surveillance campaign has been launched in a 10 km radius zone, it said. Highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu first infected humans in 1997 in Hong Kong. It has since spread from Asia to Europe and Africa and has become entrenched in some countries, causing millions of poultry infections and several hundred human deaths. (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide and Gus Trompiz)