Latest bird flu outbreak site under quarantine
7/1/2006 8:43
Dazhu County in Sichuan Province, the nation's latest bird flu
outbreak site, has shut down all 54 live poultry markets to prevent spread of
the disease.
China has reported seven human cases of H5N1 bird flu, including
three deaths, and about 30 outbreaks among poultry.
Sales of poultry, eggs
and related products have been banned in the county since Tuesday when the
Ministry of Agriculture announced that bird flu had broken out, said Yang Yue,
deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial Bureau for Industry and
Commerce.
In accord with China's animal epidemic prevention regulations, the
Dazhu site will be under quarantine isolation for at least 21 days.
Local
residents remain calm and the price of other meats in the market has not
changed, Yang said.
"Residents understand the situation and no obstruction
was encountered in closing the live poultry markets," he said.
More than 160
law enforcement officials have been dispatched to supervise the local
markets.
"If no new bird flu outbreak is reported in Dazhu within 21 days,
the live poultry markets can be reopened," Yang said.
The Municipal Bureau
for Industry and Commerce of Dazhou City, the highest authority in Dazhu County,
has banned sales of live poultry areawide.
Hong Kong has decided to suspend
imports of live poultry and poultry meat from Sichuan, the Health, Welfare and
Food Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said on
Wednesday.
Between December 22 and 25 last year, 1,800 chickens and ducks
died in three households in Yangjia Town's Liuyan Village. On January 3, the
Ministry of Agriculture confirmed the outbreak of H5N1 bird flu
there.
Migratory birds have been blamed for the outbreak of bird flu in
Dazhu, said Su Lin of the Health Department.
Nobody has been infected with
the H5N1 virus in Dazhu; blood tests of all 16 people in close contact with the
dead poultry have been negative, said the Emergency Response Office of the
department.
Dazhu, 400 kilometers east of the provincial capital Chengdu, is
where migratory birds spend the winter.
Xinhua
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