China consumers shrug off bird flu outbreak, unaware of severity

Shanghai

FOUR years ago, a bird flu outbreak in China killed at least three dozen people, triggered mass poultry culling, put masks on millions of Chinese faces and hammered shares in fast-food and travel companies.

This winter, more than 100 people have died, but few birds have been slaughtered, there are few masks on the streets and little sign of any consumer reaction, let alone the panic seen in 2013.

The number of posts mentioning "bird flu" or "H7N9" on China's Sina Weibo microblog - a useful proxy for gauging consumer interest or concern - peaked at just over 40,000 last Wednesday…