City won't ban import of live Zhejiang chickens
28/2/2006 9:47
Shanghai Daily news
The city has no plans to ban import of poultry from Zhejiang Province, where
China's most-recent human case of bird flu was reported on Saturday. The
province provides about 10 percent of the live chickens sold in the city,
according to Zhang Suhua, deputy director of the Shanghai Livestock
Office. On Saturday, the Ministry of Health reported a 9-year-old girl in the
province's Anji County was confirmed to have bird flu. So far no bird flu
cases among poultry have been reported in Zhejiang. "We have been carrying
out strict checks of poultry that are transported into the city," Zhang said.
"People should buy live chickens in designated food markets and cook them
well." Markets in the city are only allowed to sell live chickens that have
quarantine and immunity certificates and don't come from areas hit by the bird
flu. The livestock administration also takes blood samples from some chickens
for testing. "I believe live chickens sold in legal food markets are safe and
I won't give up eating chicken, but I'm afraid of the bird flu," said Huang
Liliang, 34. Last Saturday, authorities also confirmed a 26-year-old woman in
Anhui Province had contracted the fatal disease.
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