China says human-to-human transmission not confirmed in latest bird flu cases

Outbreaks of bird flu in poultry in China are very likely in the coming months, a top agriculture official said Monday, as health investigators worked to determine how a father and son in the country's east were infected by the disease.

So far, China has made major achievements in narrowing the scope of epidemics in poultry, reducing the number of birds sickened and decreasing the instances of culling, Vice Agriculture Minister Yin Chengjie was quoted as saying on the ministry's Web site.

"But in winter and spring, there is a very high possibility of outbreaks in our country's regions," Yin said. "It's not easy to be optimistic about …