China will begin mass-production of a new bird flu vaccine for poultry by the end of the month that could also help in the development of a vaccine to protect people, state media said yesterday.

The new vaccine ? 1 billion shots of which are expected to have been produced by year-end ? will be used alongside existing vaccines from next year, the China Daily said, quoting chief veterinarian Jia Youling.

The live vaccine, which will also work against another poultry disease, Newcastle disease, can be delivered orally, nasally or by spraying and will cost a fifth of existing inactivated vaccines, the newspaper said.

Standard flu shots are inactivated, meaning the virus is killed, but live vaccines contain weakened forms of the live virus.

Newcastle outbreaks killed almost 57,000 chickens in China in September, the report said. ?Research and production techniques will provide reference for developing new vaccines for human infections of bird flu,? Jia was quoted as saying.

There have been 141 confirmed human cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, all of them in Asia, including six in China. Two people have died from bird flu in China, out of 73 known fatalities in Asia.

Quarantine of outbreak areas

Scientists fear the strain could mutate from a disease that largely affects birds to one that can pass easily between people, leading to a human pandemic.

An intensive poultry vaccination campaign and enforced quarantine of bird flu outbreak areas have shown results in China?s fight against bird flu, state media said last week.

Only one county out of 31 to have reported the H5N1 strain of bird flu this year remained under isolation and there had been no new outbreaks for about three weeks, state media said.

Since October, China had also vaccinated more than 5 billion birds. It began last week human trials of the homegrown bird flu vaccine and initial results are expected within three months.

Pilgrims flock to Haj amid tight Saudi health checks

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday more than half a million Muslims had arrived for next month?s haj pilgrimage to Mecca and had been checked for disease, amid fears about the global spread of bird flu.

State news agency SPA quoted Health Minister Hamad al-Manei as saying the 622,000 pilgrims who had arrived up to now for the rites, due to begin in the second week of January, were ?clear of any virus or illness?. ?Anyone found to have an illness is sent back to his country immediately,? he said, adding the kingdom had beefed up health checks at arrival points around the country. He did not say how many had been sent back so far. Around 2.5 million Muslims from over 160 countries head for Mecca each year in one of the world?s biggest religious rituals. Many come from Asian countries, where the deadly H5N1 form of bird flu has killed more than 70 people since 2003. Health experts have warned that the hundreds of thousands of people gathering in Mecca this year could risk creating the conditions in which a pandemic strain of flu could emerge. Manei made no specific mention of bird flu, but officials say the kingdom has spent 25 million riyals ($6.7 million) to treat and prevent flu ahead of the haj season, especially among those in contact with birds.

An Interior Ministry spokesman played down the concerns. ?Worrying is normal but that doesn?t mean there are not enough procedures to prevent something like this,? he said.

The authorities struggle each year to prevent unlicensed Saudis and foreign residents from taking part in the pilgrimage, swelling the already high numbers.

Experts fear bird flu could mutate into a strain which could be transmitted from person to person.

The risk of mutation would be increased if anyone with bird flu came to Mecca and mingled with people with seasonal flu among the huge crowds. Experts say a flu pandemic among humans could kill millions around the globe and cause massive economic losses.