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Database of 20,000 workers to help city control bird flu
30/11/2005 8:00

Xu Fang and Ning Bo/Shanghai Daily news

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A vendor showcases his pet birds at a flower and bird market on Jiangyin Road yesterday. The city will ban the sale of birds in 41 such markets starting today. ¡ª Zhang Suoqing

Local agriculture and health departments have built a database about 20,000 people who work in the city's poultry industry to help fight bird flu, officials said yesterday.
The Xinhua news agency said the 20,000 people are involved in jobs like poultry production, transport, trade and processing.
The database lists the kinds of jobs they do, their workplaces and phone numbers, the scale of the operations and the kind of contact they have with poultry.
If bird flu breaks out, the government can quickly decide if poultry need to be culled, carry out an epidemiology investigation and determine the source of the infection.
Twenty thousand notices about bird flu prevention and control will be issued to poultry breeders and other people in close contact with poultry.
Warnings are being posted in hotels, restaurants and suburban villages to remind people to be cautious.
No pet birds can be sold in the city from today.
The Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau issued a statement yesterday, banning the sale of birds in the city's 41 flower and bird markets and all other markets where they used to be traded.
Resumption of trade will depend on the country's bird-flu situation.
Now is the city's peak time for migratory birds. The bureau's statement says the changing weather provides favorable conditions for an outbreak of the lethal virus.
"A considerable number of traded birds in the markets were caught in the wild from across the country, including the bird flu stricken areas, and it's impossible to inoculate them," the statement said.
Officials are concerned that if any bird has the virus, it could be spread quickly in such markets.
Only three human cases of bird flu have been reported in China.
No bird-flu cases have been reported in Shanghai, but officials have said the city is not taking any chances.