China is to establish bird flu monitoring centers in rural areas to strengthen the country’s efforts to deal with any outbreaks, the official Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday.

China has not detected any cases of bird flu since an outbreak in July in the eastern province of Anhui, but agriculture officials have said the disease posed a risk during the autumn and winter migration season.

“The rural centers will be used for flu strain detection and epidemic outbreak monitoring, as well as for specimen collection, test and analysis,” Xinhua quoted the Health Ministry as saying.

The virus has forced the slaughter of more than 100 million birds across Asia and killed 32 people in Thailand and Vietnam this year.

Bird flu was reported in 16 Chinese provinces this year, Xinhua said.