Vietnam's capital city Hanoi has banned the use of motorcycles and bicycles to transport live poultry as part of efforts to protect the city from a bird flu outbreak.

The public should maintain high alert against the influenza virus after the massive flow of travelers during and in the wake of the long Chinese New Year holidays, according to public health officials.

Researchers in Japan said Thursday they had developed a flu vaccine that works against multiple viruses and could prevent a deadly pandemic of bird flu mutations.

A man in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou has been infected with bird flu and is in a critical condition in hospital, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

Tests have confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at a turkey farm near Vancouver, but it appeared to be a less virulent strain and posed little risk to humans, officials said on Saturday.

A toddler has died of hand, foot and mouth disease, state media reported on Friday, in an eastern Chinese province that was the epicentre of a deadly outbreak last spring.

A person has been infected but is not ill with the Ebola Reston virus after coming into contact with sick pigs in the northern Philippines, the health secretary said Friday, adding that the risk to others is negligible.

Health workers have killed more than 23,000 chickens and ducks in southeast Nepal after authorities detected the country's first known instance of bird flu, officials said Friday.

China has started a daily bird flu reporting system for poultry and human cases after four people were infected with the H5N1 virus this month, three fatally, the Health Ministry said Thursday.

Two Indonesians living close to the capital Jakarta have died of bird flu, the health ministry said on Wednesday, bringing the country's death toll from the disease to 115.