Jia Youling, National Chief Veterinary Officer, said that as at December 13, no new suspected case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) had been reported in China for 15 consecutive days, and quarantine has been lifted in 23 previously affected areas.

"We are fully capable of effectively containing the spread of bird flu in China," he said at a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

In 2005, 30 cases of HPAI outbreaks were confirmed in China, including one case of migratory bird infection in northwest Qinghai Province. Since October, 26 cases of bird flu have been confirmed in nine provinces and autonomous regions.

Jia, director of the Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said an active vaccination policy has been implemented on the mainland, and all domesticated birds will be vaccinated gradually.

"The national average poultry vaccination intensity is above 80 percent, and efforts are ongoing to vaccinate the remaining birds," he said.

According to statistics, 6.85 billion domestic birds have been vaccinated this year, with more than 5 billion vaccinated since October.

China will provide the vaccine for all domestic birds and small-scale poultry raisers will be given the vaccine free of charge early next year.

"The newly developed vaccine against "Newcastle" disease and avian influenza can be easily deployed through sprinkling, drinking, with eye drops and various other means," Jia said.

"It can significantly reduce the labor and the risk involved," he said.

It will also be very cheap as its production cost is only one fifth of those currently available on the market, Jia said.

Jia refuted reports that China concealed the extent of the pandemic.

"We didn't find any bird flu virus in the three areas where the human cases of bird flu were reported, which is quite common in the other parts of the world," Jia said.

Citing Hong Kong as an example, he said the bird flu virus was found in only three of the eight cases of human bird flu infections in 1997.

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(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2005)