Two people confirmed on Saturday to be infected with bird flu were in critical condition yesterday as agricultural authorities warned of a possible massive outbreak among birds in the country.

The two who tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus are a 9-year-old girl in East China's Zhejiang Province and a 26-year-old woman farmer in East China's Anhui Province.

In a report published on its website on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said the girl, surnamed You, showed signs of fever and pneumonia on February 10 while the woman, identified only as Wang, showed similar symptoms a day later.

The woman had contact with sick and dead chickens in Yingshang County where an outbreak of the virus in poultry was reported late Saturday and the girl from Anji County had contact with sick chickens while twice visiting relatives in another county of Anhui, it said.

The woman, two months pregnant, was in the No 2 People's Hospital in Fuyang yesterday, according to the doctor in charge, who would only give his surname Li. He refused to disclose further information such as the prognosis for the woman and her unborn child.

"We put 54 people under medical observation because they had close contact with the woman," said a Yingshang government official surnamed Sun yesterday. "But they have been discharged because they are all healthy."

Till yesterday afternoon, the number of people infected with bird flu in China reached 14, including eight deaths.

The Ministry of Agriculture said it had detected the H5N1 strain of the virus in the dead poultry in Yingshang on Saturday and culled more than 200 fowls.

The girl was also critically ill and local authorities have deployed more than 20 health workers to treat her, Xinhua News Agency said yesterday.

About 600 people who had contact with the patient were tested and an unspecified number are under medical observation, Xinhua said. Also, no birds have been found infected with the virus across Zhejiang as the authorities try to determine the source of illness.

China destroyed roughly 23 million fowls last year as it tried to halt the spread of bird flu, Agriculture Minister Du Qinglin said over the weekend.

Of the 163,100 birds found to be infected the H5N1 virus, 154,600 died, said the minister when briefing the 10th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, on Saturday.

In 2005, China reported 31 avian influenza outbreaks in chicken farms and one outbreak among migratory birds.

Source: China Daily