Two billion yuan earmarked to control bird flu
By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-03 05:45

In particular, veterinary workers at the grassroots level should receive more training, and livestock-raising methods should be transformed so that poultry is raised under advanced, hygienic standards and on a large scale.

Most Chinese poultry is raised in scattered, small courtyard farms with little attention to hygiene, making them vulnerable to a possible contagion, Jia Youling, director of the Veterinary Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture said on Friday.

Other measures adopted at the meeting included stepping up immunization in border areas, poultry farms and wetlands; and giving priority to the development of effective vaccines.

Yesterday's meeting came amidst reports of more bird flu outbreaks elsewhere in the world, while various areas in China stepped up countermeasures.

Thailand yesterday reported a fresh outbreak of bird flu among poultry in the central province of Ang Thong, the seventh province to be hit by the latest flare-up of the disease, Reuters reported.

Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said his country and Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Viet Nam have agreed to co-operate fully to prevent outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the region, according to a Xinhua report.

Meanwhile, China has suspended poultry and poultry-product imports from 14 countries, including Thailand, Viet Nam and Cambodia, where bird flu cases have been reported, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Also yesterday, a seminar in Beijing brought together Chinese agricultural and quarantine officials and their United States counterparts to discuss ways to stop the spread of bird flu.

(China Daily 11/03/2005 page1)