Deadly bird flu cover-up in China feared

Bird flu killed more than five times as many migratory birds as previously reported in China’s west in an outbreak of apparently unprecedented scale, an agriculture official said yesterday, but he denied reports of human cases.

The official also confirmed reports that hundreds of cattle with foot-and-mouth disease have been slaughtered near Beijing since early May, and insisted the case was handled properly even though the government failed to announce it sooner.