China has strengthened the supervision and monitoring of the
bird flu outbreak as more infected birds were reportedly found in
two counties in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on
Tuesday.
China's National Avian Flu Reference Laboratory confirmed that
the dead fowl from family-run farms in Zepu and Urumqi counties
were infected with the H5N1 strain, according to the Ministry of
Agriculture (MOA) on Tuesday.
A total of 322,500 birds within a three-kilometer radius of the
two counties have been culled, and poultry markets within a
10-kilometer radius have been closed, the ministry said
"The epidemic is under control," said Qian Zhi, vice chairman of
Xinjiang, adding that the two counties have bought large quantities
of bird flu vaccine for birds, protective suits and disinfectants
to prevent the spread of the disease.
These cases have aroused national attention, just a day after
the MOA announced another highly pathogenic bird flu outbreak at a
village near Huainan city in east China's Anhui Province, which
involved the culling of about 130,000 fowl.
The ministry has sent expert panels and supervision teams to
Anhui and Xinjiang to assist in the emergency procedures.
Other provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have
strengthened monitoring on poultry farms and migrant birds, which
are believed to be carriers of the virus.
South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has set up
special monitoring stations at its eight counties bordering
Vietnam, which has also reported a major bird flu outbreak.
In addition, Guangxi's health departments have resumed
monitoring people suffering from fevers in hospitals. They have
also started a vaccination program for the elderly, children,
medical workers, and poultry farmers, traders and butchers.
In the southern province of Fujian, the provincial forestry
department has set up 24 monitoring stations to study migrant
birds.
The stations are required to submit daily reports on the
condition of the birds, alive or dead.
In Changchun, provincial capital of northeast China's Jilin
Province, the government has begun vaccinating pigeons in the
city.
Amidst the already edgy atmosphere, news that the quarantine on
Tianchang City in Anhui and Xiangtan County in central China's
Hunan Province on Tuesday injected some confidence in the central
government's capacity to control the disease.
An outbreak was reported in Wantang Village, Xiangtan County on
October 18, and in Tianchang on October 20.
The MOA said that there have no new reports of the disease in
the last 21 days following a three-week quarantine.
?(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2005)