NANJIANG - More than 4,000 goats in eastern Jiangsu province died days after receiving goat-pox vaccines, local authorities said Wednesday.

The goats in Rudong county developed symptoms of tearing and fading appetite two or three days after the vaccination and suffered diarrhea the following week, the county government said in a statement.

None of the common medications proved effective in this case, it said.

Wang Qingyi, director of the veterinary station in Rudong, said factors ranging from the vaccines' quality, weather changes, feeding management to a new pathogen could be behind the deaths.

The Jiangsu provincial agricultural bureau has dispatched a group of experts to look into the cause of the deaths.

The provincial finance bureau purchased 60,000 vials of goat pox vaccines in two groups from the Lanzhou pharmaceutical factory of China Animal Husbandry Industry Co in 2011, of which 25,000 pieces have been used.

Goat pox is a highly infectious disease characterized by fever, lacrimation, salivation, nasal discharge and eruptions of nodules in the skin and can have a high fatality rate.