A wild bird in east China's Anhui Province has been identified as a carrier of the human avian flu virus, Ministry of Agriculture has announced.

Chinese researchers have detected the H5N1 strain of the highly pathogenic bird flu virus in brain tissues of a brown crake that was found dead in Zongyang county, where a human bird flu case was reported last year.

A gene sequencing analysis has shown the virus detected in a dead bird was 99.6 percent homologous with the virus separated from the human bird flu patient, Ministry of Agriculture quoted a report released by a state lab for avian flu research.

The dead bird was found by Guo Fusheng, a researcher with the ministry's animal quarantine institute, in a pond close to where the bird flu patient lives.

Experts say local farmers are in close contacts with the wild bird and its droppings. Once the infectant enters their respiratory or digestive systems, they become susceptible to the bird-borne disease.

Brown crake, also known as red-feet crake, lives in rice field and ponds and lays eggs in reeds and wetlands. The bird is found in many areas south of the Yangtze and east of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province, as well as the northeastern part of Vietnam, said zoologists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Source: Xinhua