Northeast China's Liaoning Province?has started culling the poultry in the bird flu-hit county of Heishan, local official said Saturday evening, adding that all the poultry in the region must be slaughtered by zero hour on Sunday.

The operation commenced at 4 PM Saturday and armed police officers and related technical professionals have been mobilized to carry out the compulsory slaughtering mission in the bird flu-hit areas of the Heishan County in the Jinzhou City, said Wang Yunwen, deputy secretary-general of the Jinzhou municipal government.

Local farmers who raise poultry found some chickens dying in the county's Badaohao township and reported the case to the local government. China's Ministry of Agriculture confirmed the case as H5N1 bird flu on Thursday.

So far, a total of 1,700 local officials have been assigned to the epidemic areas to persuade local farmers to be cooperative in the compulsory mission and help stabilize the situation, Wang said.

To ensure public health, local government has also sent 100 medical workers to the villages to offer free medical check and vaccination for local farmers, he said.

In addition, 100 police officers have been deployed to seal off the epidemic areas, he said.

"Currently in Heishan, the people are calm, social order is normal and the price of goods is stable," Wang said.

For the areas that have not been affected by the bird flu, the Heishan County government has bought 10.85 million milliliters of bacterin for prevention of H5N1 bird flu, according to Du Jinkui, director of the Information Office of the Jinzhou municipal government.

"We must ensure that 100 percent of the poultry in those areas are immune," he said.

Heishan County is located on migratory birds' route from East Asia to Australia, and more than 20 magpies and other wild birds have been spotted.

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2005)