China leads the world in using scientific measures to monitor the migratory birds, and has successfully curbed the spread of avian flu by culling wild birds after detecting the virus carriers, according to a government official Sunday.

Zhao Xuemin, vice minister of China's State Forestry Administration told Xinhua in an interview during the Wetlands Convention meeting held in Ugandan capital Kampala from Nov. 8 to 15 that China is activating a reporting network to detect outbreaks among wild birds.

"We're very concerned that migrating birds might bring the virus from bird flu-hit areas to other areas, particularly following an outbreak in May that killed more than 6,000 migratory geese and gulls at northwestern China's Qinghai Lake," Zhao said.

He assured that wildlife workers are monitoring wild birds around-the-clock, and laboratories throughout the country have been advised to stand ready for diagnosis for such virus probably carried with the migratory birds.

"China leads the world in birds monitoring as an Avian Tag Center affiliated with the State Forestry Administration was set up as early as 1982, and has tracked over 200,000 birds across the world," Zhao said.

"At first, staff of the center tracked the birds by themselves, but with the development of the high technology, more techniques have been introduced such as using the supersonics and the global positioning system (GPS) antennas," he noted. Chinese experts have detected eight main flyways for the migratory birds with three going through China, and the country has established more than 400monitoring sites along the routes, effectively controlling the virus carriers, he added.

"We have, up to now, detected five outbreaks of the virus in wild birds, and have successfully curbed their further spread," he said, emphasizing the Asian country has not yet reported any human infections.

After recent outbreaks of the H5N1 strain in wild birds in Romania, Turkey and Greece, experts have little doubt that it was carried by birds migrating from Siberia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, where H5N1 outbreaks occurred earlier in the year.

The worry now is that birds heading from the north to their southern wintering grounds will vastly expand the range of the H5N1 virus, and that their return in spring will bring a new wave of virus to the north.

"There is no need for panic but we don't want to take any chances and hence alerted our personnel to keep a strict vigil and monitor any abnormality in migratory birds or their carcasses found at the wetland sites," the vice minister said.

The Chinese government has set aside 2 billion yuan (US$250 million) from its annual budget for nationwide bird flu control and prevention. "Despite remaining free so far from the avian influenza, China is still keeping constant alert with it," he said.

Zhao urged the members to the Wetlands Convention to strengthen research and monitoring related to water bird migration and monitoring as well as disease processes in wild bird populations.

He also called for more international cooperation between the countries, especially those on the migrating flyways, as the habitats of birds are not fixed and coordination and cooperation are highly important.

"Wetlands are the habitats of water birds and migratory birds, and the Convention parties should strengthen research and cooperation by taking every possible measure to address the avian flu problems," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2005)