Beijing bans poultry trading, breeding to combat bird flu
8/11/2005 7:58
Due to bird flu outbreaks in Anhui, Hunan, Liaoning provinces and the
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Beijing yesterday closed all market trade in
live poultry and ruled out poultry breeding in its urban areas.
The move,
which stopped poultry products from entering the national capital, signals the
country's reinforced alertness against the epidemic.
Based on the bird flu
prevention and control mechanism, Beijing also banned flying pet birds and
temporarily closed all bird markets.
The chinese government has set aside 2
billion yuan (US$247 million) from its annual budget for nationwide bird flu
control and prevention, according to a State Council meeting.
The meeting
urged local governments to establish an emergency epidemic prevention and
reporting mechanism for alerts of bird flu outbreaks.
The state
Administration for Industry and Commerce said that in a first-grade bird flu
alarm, the administration's local branches should immediately cull poultry in
the bird flu-hit region, close poultry markets within a 10-square-kilometer
area, and report human infection cases within six hours after the
breakout.
"Three of the world's eight bird migrating routes pass through
China, which makes the country highly vulnerable to the latest outbreaks of H5N1
strain bird flu," said He Xintian, an official of the National Bureau of Animal
Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, when he inspected the Saihan District of
Hohhot, one of China's bird flu-hit regions this year.
Quarantine in
Tengjiaying Village was lifted in Saihan on Sunday, after no new cases or
infections of humans were reported for 21 consecutive days.
The government
said on Sunday that the poultry business can be only resumed in the area in six
months.
But there was alarm in Liaoning Province in northeast China. Six
million poultry were culled in the latest bird flu outbreak in Heishan
County.
The culling over the weekend slaughtered all birds within a radius of
3 kilometers of the outbreak site.
Migratory birds were blamed for the
outbreak.
Liaoning has appropriated 83.5 million yuan (US$10 million) in
emergency disaster relief funds for the county.
Xinhua
|
