Flu Genes Linked to South Korean, Chinese Birds

(Beijing) – A new type of bird flu that has killed eight people and made 20 sick in China is a genetic mix involving South Korean migratory birds, and domestic ducks and chickens, researchers say.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Science's Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology say that the likely cause of the mutation is a virus carried by wild birds that migrated from South Korea to the Yangtze River Delta region. That virus then mixed with a virus in local ducks and chickens.