Bird flu 'could shut down world travel'

International air travel would virtually stop if bird flu triggered a lethal human pandemic in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia’s health minister said today, as Chinese media reported plummeting poultry sales in Beijing and Shanghai.

Bird-flu prevention teams were fanning out across China’s capital to ensure no wild birds were being sold at the city’s markets, the Beijing News newspaper reported today, after 182 wild birds were found at one market on sale against regulations.