China on high alert against bird flu (Xinhua) Updated: 2005-11-16 08:51
China has strengthened supervision and monitoring on the bird flu as new
cases of the epidemic outbreak were reported in two counties of northwestern
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Tuesday.
China's National Avian Flu Reference Laboratory confirmed the virus , which
was found in the dead fowls sent from some family farms in Zepu Country and
Urumqi County, both in southern Xinjiang, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu,
said the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) on Tuesday.
In the two bird flu-hit counties, a total of 322,500 family birds within a
radius of three kilometers have been culled, and poultry and products markets
within ten kilometers have been closed, the ministry said
"The epidemic is basically put under control," said Qian Zhi, Vice chairman
of Xinjiang, adding the two county have bought a large quantity of vaccine,
protective suits and disinfectors to prevent the spread of the disease.
The local government in Xinjiang launched its quick-response mechanism
timely, blockading the epidemic zone immediately and disinfecting the people,
vehicles and relevant goods going in and out.
All the poultry in the epidemic zone have been killed and disposed of
innocuously, and all the poultry markets within 10 kilometers from the epidemic
zone have been closed.
Xinjiang's new cases have aroused great attention across the country as just
one day ago the MOA announced another highly pathogenic bird flu outbreak at a
village near Huainan city of east China's Anhui Province, which involved nearly
130,000 fowls killed.
The ministry has sent expert panels and supervision teams to Anhui and
Xinjiang to assist epidemic control.
Other provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have strengthened
monitoring on poultry farms and the migrant birds, which are said to be carriers
of the deadly disease virus.
South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has set up special monitoring
stations at its eight counties bordering Vietnam, which is also suffering from
bird flu.
In addition, Guangxi's health departments have resumed the monitoring on
fever cases in hospitals and started to vaccine the disease-vulnerable
population, such as the old, children, medical workers and poultry farmers,
traders and butchers.
In eastern province of Fujian, the provincial forestry department has set up
24 monitoring stations for migrant birds in their major habitats.
The stations are required to make a daily report on whether there are
abnormal death of migrant birds.
In Changchun, provincial capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, the
government has started to vaccine pigeons in the city in fear of spreading of
the disease by the bird.
Amid the uneasy atmosphere caused bird flu, the news that the quarantine on
the epidemic was lifted in Tianchang City of Anhui and Xiangtan County of
central China's Hunan Province on Tuesday injected confidence for the Chinese
government on its disease control capacity.
A bird flu outbreak was reported in Wantang Village, Xiangtan County on
October 18 and in Tianchang on October 20 respectively.
All signs of the bird flu there have been eradicated and no new bird flu
cases reported in the last 21 days in the two places after a three-week
isolation, according to the MOA.
At Wantang Village of Xiangtan county, veterinary staff and villagers
celebrated the end of the quarantine by burning their protective suits and
warning banners that had been used to cordoned off the area.
The live poultry markets 10 kilometers in circumference from the affected
region were also allowed to reopen.
Despite the victory, the provinces of Anhui and Huhan have kept a close eye
on the formerly affected areas to avoid reoccurrence of the disease.
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