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BEIJING (AP) -- Scientists taking a first look at the genetics of a bird flu strain that has killed three people in China said Wednesday that the virus could be harder to track than its better-known cousin H5N1 because it might be able to spread among poultry without showing any signs.

The scientists, at several research institutes around the world, urged Chinese veterinary authorities to widely test animals and birds in affected regions to quickly detect and eliminate the H7N9 virus before it becomes widespread.

They said the virus is troubling because it can infect poultry without producing any symptoms, while seriously sickening humans. The virus, previously known to have infected only birds, appears to have mutated, enabling it to more easily infect other animals, including pigs, which could serve as hosts and spread the virus more widely among humans, they said.

The findings are preliminary and need further testing.

China over the weekend reported two deaths in Shanghai in the strain's first known infections of humans. On Wednesday it announced an additional fatality - a 38-year-old cook working in Jiangsu province, where other cases also have been reported.

The cook went home to Hangzhou in Zhejiang province for treatment after falling ill in early March, and died March 27.

One other person in Hangzhou, a 67-year-old retiree, was in critical condition, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, bringing the number of seriously ill H7N9 patients in three eastern provinces to six. Those regions stepped up measures this week to guard against the spread of the disease, calling on hospitals to report severe pneumonia cases with unknown causes and schools to monitor for fevers.

In the wake of the outbreak, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention shared the genetic sequence of the new virus with the global health community. The data allow scientists to make preliminary interpretations of how the virus might behave in different animals and situations. Such hypotheses, while not conclusive, can help provide important early warnings to authorities dealing with the disease.

The scientists said that based on information from the genetic data and Chinese lab testing, the H7N9 virus appears to infect some birds without causing any noticeable symptoms. Without obvious outbreaks of dying chickens or birds to focus efforts on, authorities could face a challenge in trying to trace the source of the infection and stop the spread.

"We speculate that when this virus is maintained in poultry the disease will not appear, and similar in pigs, if they are infected, so nobody recognizes the infection in animals around them, then the transmission from animal to human may occur," said Dr. Masato Tashiro, director of the World Health Organization's influenza research center in Tokyo and one of the specialists who studied the genetic data. "In terms of this phenomenon, it's more problematic."

This behavior is unlike the virus's more established relative, the virulent H5N1 strain, which set off warnings when it began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003. H5N1 has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.

"In that sense, if this continues to spread throughout China and beyond China, it would be an even bigger problem than with H5N1 in some sense, because with H5N1 you can see evidence of poultry dying, but here you can see this would be more or less a silent virus in poultry species that will occasionally infect humans," said University of Hong Kong microbiologist Malik Peiris, who also examined the information.

Scientists closely monitor bird flu viruses, fearing they may change and become easier to spread among humans, possibly sparking a pandemic. There's no evidence of that happening in China.

Peiris praised Chinese health authorities for being forthcoming with data and information, but said animal health agencies needed to act quickly. He urged China to widely test healthy birds in live animal markets in the parts of the country where the human infections have been reported to find out what bird species might be hosting the virus and stop the spread.

"If you don't stamp it out earlier now, there won't be any chance of stamping it out in the future," Peiris said. "It already may be too late, but this is the small window of opportunity that really one has to grasp, as quickly as possible."

The Agriculture Ministry's propaganda office could not be reached by phone and did not immediately respond to a faxed list of questions.

Other information gleaned from the genetic data was that the H7N9 virus was what scientists call a "gene re-assortant" - in which three bird viruses swapped genes among themselves - undergoing changes that allowed it to adapt more easily, though not fully, to human hosts, WHO's Tashiro said. One change has allowed it to lodge on the surfaces of cells of mammals, making it easier to infect humans.

"The tentative assessment of this virus is that it may cause human infection or epidemic. It is still not yet adapted to humans completely, but important factors have already changed," Tashiro said.

In China, the public is highly sensitized to news of infectious disease outbreaks, with many still recalling the SARS pneumonia scare a decade ago, when the government stayed silent while rumors circulated for weeks of an unidentified disease in southern Guangdong province. The cover-up contributed to the spread of the virus to many parts of China and to two dozen other countries, killing hundreds of people.

While many foreign health experts say China is being far more forthcoming this time than during the SARS scare, the government still faces credibility questions at home as it tries to juggle the need to respond to calls by the public for more information and the need to prevent unnecessary panic.

"The H7N9 bird flu is currently approaching. Ten years ago, the lesson learned in fighting SARS was: The greatest enemy is not the virus, but covering up the truth; the best medicine is not steroids, but transparency and trust," Yang Yu, a commentator with state broadcaster CCTV, said in a post on his microblog. "No matter what H7N9 is, now, the time to test the progress of Chinese society over the past 10 years has come."

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Associated Press researcher Flora Ji contributed to this report. ---

Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter at twitter.com/gillianwong © 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.

PHOENIX (AP) -- Matt Holliday, Pete Kozma and Jon Jay homered and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-1 on Tuesday night to even their season-opening series at a game apiece.

Jaime Garcia (1-0) gave up two hits, one of them a solo homer by Miguel Montero, in 5 2-3 innings for the Cardinals. Holliday's two-run home run off Trevor Cahill broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth.

Kozma added a leadoff homer and Jay a two-run shot off the right field foul pole, both off reliever Heath Bell in the seventh.

Kozma's homer came on Bell's first pitch with the Diamondbacks. Matt Carpenter doubled twice for St. Louis.

Cahill (0-1) allowed three runs and five hits in 5 2-3 innings.

The slimmed-down Arizona right-hander struck out seven, walked two and hit a batter.

After getting 15 hits in their 6-2 season-opening victory on Monday night, the Diamondbacks managed just three on Tuesday. Montero had two of them.

Garcia struck out four and walked four, including three in a row with two outs in the sixth, bringing an end to his outing. Three St. Louis relievers allowed one hit in 3 1-3 innings.

Garcia and Cahill were locked in a 1-1 game through five before Jay was hit by a pitch to start the sixth. Carpenter flew out to bring up Holliday, who hit Cahill's 2-2 pitch a couple of rows into the seats in left field and St. Louis led 3-1.

Arizona got its first home run of the season when Montero hit Garcia's first pitch in the second into the opposite field seats in left to put the Diamondbacks up 1-0.

St. Louis tied it in the fourth. Matt Carpenter led off with a double into the right field corner. He took third on Holliday's ground out to second and scored when Allen Craig bounced out to short.

The Diamondbacks got the potential go-ahead run to third in the fifth. The third baseman Carpenter threw wild to first, allowing batter Cliff Pennington to reach second. Pennington advanced to third when Cahill bounced out to the pitcher, but Gerardo Parra grounded out to second to end the threat.

After getting the first two outs of the sixth, Garcia walked three in a row to load the bases and was lifted for right-hander Edward Mujica. Jason Kubel, pinch hitting for A.J. Pollock, was caught looking on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.

Bell, the former closer acquired in a trade with Miami in the offseason, allowed three runs and four hits and a walk in just one-third of an inning.

After Kozma's first-pitch homer, Shane Robinson walked, then Jay's soaring drive bounced high off the right field foul pole for a two-run home run to make it 6-1. Carpenter doubled and Bell struck out Holiday, then Craig singled and the reliever's rough Arizona debut was over.

Notes: A female fan on the porch in left-center field was hit in the face by Kozma's home run. Her male companion jumped out of the way. They stayed in their seats afterward and she didn't appear to be hurt. ... RHP Brandon McCarthy gets the start for Arizona in the series finale, his first appearance in a big league game since sustaining a horrific head injury from a line drive while pitching for Oakland last September. RHP Lance Lynn goes for the Cardinals. ... St. Louis plays three in San Francisco before playing its home opener next Monday against Cincinnati. ... Arizona OF Alfredo Marte went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and a walk in his major league debut. ... Carpenter has three doubles in two games.

© 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Tuesday it will restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material, in what outsiders see as its latest attempt to extract U.S. concessions by raising fears of war.

A spokesman for the North's General Department of Atomic Energy said scientists will quickly begin "readjusting and restarting" the facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex, including the plutonium reactor and a uranium enrichment plant. Both could produce fuel for nuclear weapons.

The reactor began operations in 1986 but was shut down as part of international nuclear disarmament talks in 2007 that have since stalled. North Korea said work to restart the facilities would begin "without delay." Experts estimate it could take anywhere from three months to a year to reactivate the reactor.

The announcement will boost concerns in Washington and among its allies about North Korea's timetable for building a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the United States, although it is still believed to be years away from developing that technology.

The nuclear vows and a rising tide of threats in recent weeks are seen as efforts by the North to force disarmament-for-aid talks with Washington and to increase domestic loyalty to young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by portraying him as a powerful military commander.

Hwang Jihwan, a North Korea expert at the University of Seoul, said the North "is keeping tension and crisis alive to raise stakes ahead of possible future talks with the United States."

"North Korea is asking the world, 'What are you going to do about this?'" he said.

The unidentified North Korean atomic spokesman said the measure is meant to resolve the country's acute electricity shortage but is also for "bolstering up the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity," according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The statement suggests the North will do more to produce highly enriched uranium. Uranium worries outsiders because the technology needed to make highly enriched uranium bombs is much easier to hide than huge plutonium facilities. North Korea previously insisted that its uranium enrichment was for producing electricity — meaning low enriched uranium.

Kim Jin Moo, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in South Korea, said that by announcing it is "readjusting" all nuclear facilities, including the uranium enrichment plant, North Korea "is blackmailing the international community by suggesting that it will now produce weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that North Korea appears to be "on a collision course with the international community." Speaking in Andorra, the former South Korean foreign minister said the crisis has gone too far and international negotiations are urgently needed.

China, North Korea's only major economic and diplomatic supporter, expressed unusual disappointment with its ally. "We noticed North Korea's statement, which we think is regrettable," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. South Korea also called it "highly regrettable."

Yukiya Amano, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the North's decision "is another step which is deeply troubling for us and the world."

The North's plutonium reactor produces spent fuel rods laced with plutonium and is the core of Nyongbyon. It was disabled under a 2007 deal made at now-dormant aid-for-disarmament negotiations involving the North, the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.

In 2008, North Korea destroyed the cooling tower at Nyongbyon in a show of commitment, but the deal later stalled after the North balked at allowing intensive international fact-checking of its past nuclear activities. North Korea pulled out of the talks after international condemnation of its long-range rocket launch in April 2009.

North Korea "is making it clear that its nuclear arms program is the essence of its national security and that it's not negotiable," said Sohn Yong-woo, a professor at the Graduate School of National Defense Strategy of Hannam University in South Korea.

North Korea conducted its third nuclear test in February, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions that have infuriated its leaders. It has since declared that the armistice ending the Korean War in 1953 is void, shut down key military phone and fax hotlines with Seoul, threatened to launch nuclear and rocket strikes on the U.S. mainland and its allies and, most recently, declared at a high-level government assembly that making nuclear arms and a stronger economy are the nation's top priorities.

The Korean Peninsula technically remains in a state of war because a truce, not a peace treaty, ended the Korean War. The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent to North Korea.

Washington has said it takes the threats seriously, though White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday the U.S. has not detected any military mobilization or repositioning of forces in North Korea.

The North's rising rhetoric has been met by a display of U.S. military strength, including flights of nuclear-capable bombers and stealth jets at annual South Korean-U.S. military drills that the allies call routine but that North Korea claims are invasion preparations.

South Koreans are familiar with provocations from the North, but its rhetoric over the last few weeks has raised worries.

"This is a serious concern for me," said Heo Jeong-ja, 70, a cleaning lady in Seoul. "The country has to stay calm, but North Korea threatens us every day."

North Korea added its 5-megawatt plutonium reactor to its nuclear complex at Nyongbyon in 1986, and the country is believed to have exploded plutonium devices in its first two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.

There had long been claims by the U.S. and others that North Korea was also pursuing a secret uranium program. In 2010, the North unveiled to visiting Americans a uranium enrichment program at Nyongbyon.

Analysts say they don't believe North Korea currently has mastered the miniaturization technology needed to build a warhead that can be mounted on a missile, and the extent of its uranium enrichment efforts is also unclear.

Scientist and nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker, one of the Americans on the 2010 visit to Nyongbyon, has estimated that North Korea has 24 to 42 kilograms of plutonium — enough for perhaps four to eight rudimentary bombs similar to the plutonium weapon used on Nagasaki in World War II.

It's not known whether the North's latest atomic test, in February, used highly enriched uranium or plutonium stockpiles. South Korea and other countries have so far failed to detect radioactive elements that may have leaked from the test and which could determine what kind of device was used.

North Korea is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program. On Tuesday, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a treaty regulating international arms trade over the objection of North Korea, Iran and Syria.

___ Associated Press writers Sam Kim and Jean H. Lee in Seoul, John Heilprin in Geneva, George Jahn in Vienna, and researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report. ___ Follow Foster Klug on Twitter at twitter.com/APKlug