Surveillance has been stepped up around lakes in northwest
China's Qinghai Province following the discovery of a
dead wild goose carrying the bird flu virus.
The Ministry of Agriculture said on Sunday that the dead
bar-headed goose found in Gangcha County tested positive for the
H5N1 strain, the highly contagious strain that has killed 12 people
in China.
Qinghai is known as a stopping point for migrating birds and the
virus killed thousands of bar-headed geese at a nature reserve in
the region in 2005.
Qinghai veterinary departments sterilized the area where the
dead bird was found and stepped up the monitoring of migratory
birds, the ministry said in a statement on its website.
No bird flu outbreak has been found among domestic fowls after
the discovery and no further bird deaths reported.
The ministry urged local authorities to step up their
surveillance on areas where large number of migratory birds
rest.
"Dozens of teams of people are sent every day to monitor areas
where lakes abound," said Sun Yingxiang, an official with the
provincial agriculture department.
Even though it is currently the May Day holidays, the hundreds
of observers from various departments including health, agriculture
and forestry would not be relaxing their surveillance duties, he
added.
"We send people to regions that we have access to," he said.
"Telescopes will be used in areas out of reach, such as
wetlands."
There are eight major migration routes, also called flyways, in
the world for different birds. Three of them, the Central
Asian-Indian flyway, East Asian-Australian flyway and West Pacific
flyway, converge over the Chinese mainland, including Qinghai,
before they extend to other places.
The ministry also reported on Sunday an outbreak of
foot-and-mouth disease among livestock in Qinghai, the second case
in the region in two months.
The Asian I strain of the disease was discovered in four dairy
cows on a farm in Haiyan County on April 26, the ministry said.
The national foot-and-mouth disease reference laboratory
confirmed the outbreak.
The ministry and the provincial government have taken emergency
measures to contain the outbreak, disinfected the area and culled
sick animals, the statement said.
(China Daily May 2, 2006)