The newly confirmed bird flu case in Anhui
Province is an isolated incident and not a large-scale
outbreak, said Zhang Zhongqiu, vice director of the Ministry of
Agriculture’s Stockbreeding and Veterinary Bureau. However, that
does not rule out the possibility of discovering cases in other
locations, he said on Wednesday.
Experts suspect the Anhui infection came from migratory
birds.
Located beside Chaohu Lake and on a slope, the chicken farm in
the Juchao District where the disease was found is relatively
isolated. To date the ministry has not received reports of new
cases.
The national bird flu reference laboratory on Tuesday confirmed
that the infected chickens had the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird
flu virus.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health issued a circular requiring
health departments at all levels to monitor carefully and prevent
the flu from infecting humans. The ministry also urged
stockbreeding and veterinary departments across the country to
spare no effort in preventing an epidemic.
The Anhui provincial government has also issued an urgent
circular requiring local governments to deal seriously with regular
epidemic control measures, standardize control over poultry raising
and carefully sterilize chicken and duck farms.
The circular also said that all local governments should
establish an epidemic monitoring system and a related information
network. Supervision should focus on poultry farms and areas that
previously reported bird flu cases and on those that are at
risk.
The provincial government also directed local governments to
compensate those who suffer losses from compulsory poultry
vaccinations and slaughter.
Beijing and south China’s Guangdong Province have suspended
shipments of poultry from Anhui. The Guangdong quarantine authority
has urged poultry farms that supply live avian products to Hong
Kong and Macao to keep wild birds away.
The Anhui case is the first since China announced it had stamped
out the disease on March 16 this year.
Both AFP and Reuters reported yesterday that neighboring country
Thailand joined China and Vietnam in reporting fresh outbreaks of
bird flu. The Thai government has confirmed the virus as the H5N1
strain.
Vietnam has reported several outbreaks over the past three
months.
Bird flu was first detected in China on January 27 at a duck
farm in south China’s Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region. Another 48 cases were confirmed and
nearly 9 million birds were culled before the epidemic was declared
over in mid-March.
No humans were infected with the disease in China.
(China Daily July 8, 2004)