An outbreak of bird flu in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region last week has
been put under control and no human infection was reported,
according to the regional government.
As of zero hour of October 2, no new deaths of poultry and no
human case of bird flu were reported, a regional government
spokesman said on Monday.
Nearly 1,000 chickens and ducks reportedly died suddenly in a
poultry farm in Xincheng village of Jiuyuan District of Baotou city
on September 27. The national avian influenza laboratory later
confirmed that the H5N1 virus was found in samples of the dead
poultry in Xincheng village.
Zhang Shaolin, owner of the farm, and his wife bought some 5,400
chickens and ducks from August 21 to September 20 from other places
of the county.
The couple found more than 70 chickens and ducks dead in the
evening of September 20.
Dead chickens and ducks were also found in the following days
and the death toll rose to 985 as of September 27 when the couple
reported the case to the veterinarian station of Baotou city.
Baotou city veterinarian station later reported the case and
sent samples of the dead poultry to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Regional Animal Epidemic Disease Control Center and the national
avian influenza laboratory.
Local agricultural department immediately quarantined the
infected area. Zhang and his wife were also quarantined and people
who had close contact with them were under observation.
To date, 17,616 chickens and ducks have been culled to control
the outbreak.
A batch of bird flu vaccines allocated by the Ministry of
Agriculture reached Baotou early Monday morning. All poultry in
Jiuyuan District will be inoculated in the coming 10 days.
Investigation is being conducted to find where did Zhang bought
these chickens and ducks and where did he sold the poultry.
China has reported nine outbreaks of bird flu in poultry this
year, in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, north
China's Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia, east China's Anhui
Province, southwestern Guizhou and Sichuan provinces and the
central province of Hunan.
(Xinhua News Agency October 3, 2006)