Dove banquet puts bird flu fears to flight

Doves were on the menu, in a bid to ease fears over bird flu, at a banquet attended by a number of officials, including people's congress deputies, in South China's Guangdong province on Monday, New Express Daily reported.

The event was organized at a hotel in Jiangmen city by Yang Weilin who owns a farm and breeds doves in Xinhui district.

Officials can take the lead and eat dove and similar birds to help ease fears caused by the H7N9 bird flu outbreak, Yang said.

Yang slaughtered 40 birds for the banquet.

"No H7N9 cases have been reported in Guangdong so far," he said.

Affected by the outbreak of H7N9 flu in eastern and northern China, sales of his doves plummeted in the past week.

Yang, 61, said he sold only 100 doves in the past week, and the income does not cover their breeding costs.

Yang is now raising more than 2,000 pairs of doves in his farm in Yamen township.

More than 200 farms in Xinhui raise about 500,000 doves.