Chinese authorities had locked down the village in eastern Anhui province where a 24-year-old pregnant woman died of bird flu last week, becoming the nation's first confirmed human fatality from the virus. Several local officials in red arm bands were posted as sentries at the narrow dirt road entrance to Yantan, a small village of a few thousand residents in Zhoutan township where Zhou Maoya died on November 10.
The officials refused to answer questions, other than admitting that Yantan was where Zhou had died of avian flu and insisting that only local residents were allowed in and out of the village.
"Don't come around asking questions about bird flu. If you want to understand the bird situation here you must go to the local government," said an official.
Police then followed an AFP journalist several kilometres (miles) out of the area.
On Wednesday China's health ministry in Beijing announced its first human cases of avian flu, saying the H5N1 virus had killed Zhou, and likely claimed the life of a 12-year-old girl in Hunan province.
Despite authorities' attempt to impose a media black-out on the village, residents spoke of the fear in the area due to the bird flu, as well as the fate of Zhou, who returned home last month to make wedding plans.
Residents said Zhou had run away with her boyfriend several months ago, but returned to her parents home in Yantan in early October with her belly beginning to distend.
"Zhou was four months pregnant," Liao Chenglin, a furniture maker in neighbouring Zhoutan town, less than one kilometre (half a mile) from Yantan, told AFP.
Liao said they did not know Zhou or her family personally but knew her parents had indeed raised ducks and chickens.
"They sold some of those ducks and also ate them," said Liao, 51.
Villagers were unsure where Zhou had run off to but the Oriental Morning Post said she had gone to work in a textile factory in the neighbouring province of Jiangsu.
Liao's wife, who gave her surname as Zhang, said residents had told her Zhou was not ill when she returned to Yantan.
"Her parents refused to take her to the hospital because they thought it would not do any good," said Zhang. Rural Chinese also often cite relatively expensive medical costs as a reason for not seeking treatment when sick.
Zhang said officials had met with all villagers to give them flu vaccinations and to tell them how to protect themselves against the bird flu virus, including not consuming poultry products.
In the outlying areas of Yantan, residents were also well informed about bird flu and said there had been no outbreaks they knew of.
Fan Litan, a peasant woman from Fantu village, some three kilometres from Yantan, said her family had been extremely frightened when her dog and some of the 20 odd ducks as well as chickens she raised had suddenly died.
"We were scared to death," said Fan, standing next to a red sign posted on the outside of wall of her home that said: "Prevention and control by the masses is basic for people."
But Fan explained that her birds did not have bird flu, rather some "hooligan" had poisoned them along with the dog.
"Ducks and chickens are all healthy," Fan said, but she admitted that she had stopped eating poultry.
A local government official, Fan Qian, told AFP that it was believed Zhou was infected while she was outside of the province.
However the specific source of the infection was unkown and more than two million poultry in the area were being vaccinated following her death, Fan said. Another 1,000 had been culled.
Anhui has recorded two certified outbreaks of avian flu over the past month.
