Flu fears keep Chinese panda fans at bay

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - A research facility for pandas in northwestern China has banned visitors to stop them transmitting the H1N1 flu to the critically endangered animals.

The Shaanxi Wild Animal Rescue and Research Center, one of four such facilities in China, has stopped recruiting volunteers and put large areas off-limits to visitors after heavy snow bought plunging temperatures and a rise in flu cases, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Pandas are regarded as China's national symbol and the Shaanxi center houses 21 pandas, including three cubs, as well as a few other protected species, the report said.

The only people who can see the pandas close up are now their five carers and two vets.

"For safety considerations, they have to wear masks and gloves before entering the panda houses," said the centre's deputy chief Jin Xuelin.

"It's still not certain whether pandas are susceptible to H1N1 flu, but we need to be careful," he added. "Seasonal flu cases were reported several times at the giant panda research base in Sichuan's Wolong in the past."

All the centre's pandas are a new, and more endangered sub-species of the bear, Xinhua said, with smaller skeletons and patches of brown rather then the more typical black-and-white of other pandas.

Scientists believe fewer than 2,000 giant pandas live in the wild in China.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, editing by Miral Fahmy)