Shanghai Daily news

Emergency-response button' pushed

Shanghai reported a case of suspected bird flu yesterday in Kangqiao area, Nanhui District.

According to the Shanghai Husbandry Authority, all poultry in the suspected bird flu-hit area was slaughtered and the affected area sanitized. The epidemic situation in Kangqiao is under control and no infections in human beings have been found.

It was reported that the suspected case was found in a private chicken farm. The owner, who is from outside Shanghai, was blamed for not adopting strict quarantine measures as ordered by related government authorities.

Shanghai government set up a bird-flu prevention team in mid-January. The team, headed by Mayor Han Zheng, has put epidemic reporting and a response system in place.

The button on the emergency-response system has been pushed and the strictest quarantine measures have been adopted to prevent the outbreak of the bird flu virus, authorities said yesterday afternoon.

Chen Liangyu, Party secretary of Shanghai, urged local authorities to adopt effective measures to control the epidemic situation. The most urgent job is to prevent the virus from jumping to humans, he said.

Before the breakout of the news, sales of Shanghai's poultry market had already sagged.

Shanghai Sanguantang Market, the city's largest chicken wholesaler, said it had reduced its supplies to 75,000 birds from its usual 150,000 level.

"All the chickens sold in our market are through strict quarantine measures," said Wang Zhen, Sanguantang's general manager. "However, after the SARS epidemic, people have grown cautious and the demand has experienced a sharp drop."

Vendor Shi Xiaojian said he had never encountered such bad business before.

"I usually sell out 3,500 chickens by 8am. Today, I cut my supplies to 2,000 but there were still 1,000 to be sold by 8:30 am," he said.

Poultry prices dropped 0.5 yuan (US 6 cents) to 7.5 yuan per kilogram.

Most of the poultry sold at Sanguantang is from nearby Jiangsu Province. The market has no products from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Hubei Province and Hunan Province, which all reported confirmed bird flu cases.

While wholesalers suffer, retailers are also worried about how to deal with oversupply.

Lu Jilu, a retailer at the Shanghai Zhongkai Free Market, said he sold only five chickens yesterday morning.

"The 100 yuan in sales can't even cover my transportation fees to buy the chickens. I will not purchase any more tomorrow," said Lu.

Meanwhile, two local zoos said they had adopted preventive measures.

The Shanghai Wild Life Park said it had sanitized all the poultry houses and vaccinated most of its 7,600 birds.

Notices warning visitors of close contact with birds are set up in some exhibition areas.

The Shanghai Zoo adopted similar measures.

"We have banned visitors from feeding peacocks, fearing close contact with the birds may cause infection," said Xie Huabiao, an official of the zoo's feeding department.

According to officials of both parks, there was no evident decline in visitors due to the disease.

"About 4,000 visitors came daily during the holiday. It's less than last year. But it is cold weather that deterred visitors," said Su Feilong of Shanghai Wild Animal Park.