BEIJING, Nov 7 (Reuters) A zoo in southern China has pulled poultry from the diets of its tigers and lions to prevent a winter outbreak of the deadly birdflu, the Xinhua news agency reported today.

The move came after dozens of tigers were infected or culled in a bird flu outbreak at a zoo in Thailand last month.

Lions, tigers and other meat-eating animals at the Guangzhou Zoo in Guangdong province would keep to a strict regimen of beef, mutton, rabbit and no chicken for the next three months, Xinhua quoted zoo official Chen Honghan as saying.

China has reported outbreaks of bird flu among poultry this year.

Health experts fear the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has killed 12 people in Thailand and 20 in Vietnam this year, could mutate into a form that could be transmitted between humans.

In a large bird flu outbreak in Thailand´s Sri Rache Tiger Zoo in October, 51 tigers were culled and another 32 died from eating infected raw chicken.

The World Health Organisation said the deaths of the tigers had no implications for humans as tigers were not known to host the human influenza virus and thus be able to serve as a lethal genetic mixing vessel.