Highly contagious avian influenza has not surfaced so far in
China, but that gives no reason for the country to relax, Vice
Premier Hui
Liangyu warned on Friday.
Instead, all localities should strengthen their prevention
efforts and improve their contingency plans to stop deadly bird flu
from appearing in China or entering the country from neighbors, Hui
told a national tele-conference in Beijing.
The meeting coincided with the first anniversary of China's
outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which was detected on
January 27, 2004 at a duck farm in the Dingdang Township, South
China's Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The country is facing a stern situation and an uphill task in
bird flu epidemic prevention, as there exist "weak links" in some
local regions' animal epidemic control work, Hui said.
As a further complication, severe outbreaks of bird flu have
been reported in some of China's neighbors, he said.
For example, bird flu has affected 27 cities and provinces in
Viet Nam, killing and leading to the forced culling of more than
812,000 fowls, according to agency reports.
Viet Nam also has registered 16 human infections, the reports
said.
Therefore, Hui urged local government officials never to
underestimate the situation, nor to miscalculate the prevention
difficulties, or to misjudge the perils incurred from a possible
outbreak.
Jia Youling, director of the Veterinary Bureau under the
Ministry of Agriculture, earlier cautioned the January-March period
could be a peak season for the contraction of bird flu.
This is partly because migratory birds, which concentrate in
water areas in southern areas, are likely to spread the virus to
domestic poultry, Jia said.
Hui said epidemic surveillance should be stepped up on the
network of rivers in southern China, with quarantine and inspection
strengthened in poultry and their products in urban areas.
To root out any "hidden perils," Vice Premier Hui asked regions
at high risk to improve their vaccination of water fowls and at
poultry farms.
Minister of Agriculture Du Qinglin had stressed no fowl should
be left unvaccinated in those regions.
In particular, the localities should improve their capacity in
dealing with emergencies, Hui said.
For that purpose, they should further improve their contingency
plans and have in place material reserves, he said.
He also said Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention and other related
statutes should be enforced to the letter, to ensure the country's
epidemic control work proceed in an orderly and scientific way.
To stop the deadly virus from spreading into China, Hui said
prevention efforts should be redoubled on the border, including
border trade.
In Yunnan
Province in southwest China, which shares a long border with
Viet Nam, a series of emergency measures have been put into place
to prevent bird flu from spreading into China, according to a
Xinhua News Agency report.
Stations have been set up along a 30-kilometre-wide "immune
protection zone" on the border to inspect and disinfect all
vehicles and people that pass through the area, the report
said.
On March 16 last year, China announced its initial success in
stamping out the virus after ending isolation in the last of 49
hotbeds.
But in July, the disease was found at a chicken farm in Juchao
District, Chaohu City in East China's Anhui
Province, where experts suspected migratory birds were the
cause.
It was soon brought under control.
China has not reported any human cases of avian influenza.
(China Daily January 29, 2005)