China has ordered all poultry imports and relative products shipped from Canada after September 23 be returned or destroyed to ward off the H7N3 avian influenza virus.

The decision jointly made by the Ministry of Agriculture and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine came two days after the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) released an outbreak alert, saying that the highly pathogenic virus has been confirmed in a chicken broiler breeder flock in Saskatchewan.

The Paris-based international organization warned that approximately 540 roosters have died in one barn containing approximately 600 birds. Another 49,100 roosters and broiler breeders held in other nine barns nearby are susceptible.

To remedy the situation, China has imposed an import ban on all poultry and relative products from Canada and required relevant local governmental departments to seal up all Canadian poultry and relative products carried by airplanes, ships or trains from abroad that must stop over in or transit China.

Illegal poultry imports from Canada must be destroyed under the supervision of entry-exit inspection and quarantine departments.

China has decided to restore as of Sunday the imports of animals with cloven hooves and relative products from Santa Catarina, Acre and the cities of Rio Grande do Sul and Rondonia of Amazon in Brazil as these regions have been confirmed by the OIE as free from the foot-and-mouth disease.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2007)