Special report: Global fight against bird flu

Health workers pack dead chicken at a wholesale poultry market in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China, Dec. 10, 2008. More than 80,000 chickens are now being slaughtered in Hong Kong on Wednesday after bird flu was found in a poultry farm, the first outbreak on a farm here in nearly six years.(Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai) Photo Gallery>>>

    HONG KONG, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Gene sequencing results have indicated the influenza-A (H9N2) virus found in a two-month-old girl in December 2008 was of avian origin, Hong Kong Center for Health Protection said on Wednesday.

    The center said that re-assortment with genes of human influenza origin has not been found.

    The virus is highly similar to the H9N2 virus isolated from another case involving a nine-month-old girl in 2007, the center said.

    The virus found in the two-month-old girl was sensitive to antiviral medicines Tamiflu and Amantadine.

    The girl is being treated in Tuen Mun Hospital for another disease. Her symptoms of H9N2 infection have subsided.

    Samples taken from her on Jan. 2 tested negative for H9N2. Her close contacts did not develop symptoms of H9N2 infection.