China Sunday for the first time eased restrictions on the
movement of people and poultry near a town stricken by the deadly
H5N1 strain of avian flu.
In addition, agricultural ministry officials said the epidemic
is expected to turn from high incidence to gradual control in this
country.
No new suspected bird flu cases have been reported in China
since last Tuesday.
Tang Bowen, magistrate of Long'an County in South China's
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, announced yesterday morning the
ending of the isolation imposed on the county's Dingdang Town,
where the first case of bird flu on the Chinese mainland was found
last month in a local duck farm.
"I want to express my gratitude to those who cared for and
helped us," said Huang Shengde, owner of the duck farm in question.
"I will continue to raise ducks as soon as it is safe to do so, but
I must handle vaccinations work carefully."
The local government slaughtered 14,000 fowls within a
3-kilometre radius of the duck farm, and vaccinated all poultry
within 5 kilometres of the duck farm. The area had been closed off
under animal epidemic prevention laws.
The quarantine-lifting decision was made after thorough
examinations from Chinese agricultural experts. Four other areas
afflicted with bird flu are being checked for whether similar
decisions can be made, according to the China National Avian
Influenza Prevention Headquarters officials.
An important criterion to judge the bird flu situation is
comparing the number of regions moving out of isolation with the
number of newly confirmed epidemic regions, said Jia Youling, a
spokesman for bird flu control with the Ministry of
Agriculture.
The ministry received a report from Guangxi that no new bird flu
cases had been discovered or confirmed for a succession of more
than 21 days since the last poultry in the affected area of the
town was slaughtered.
Though bird flu hit 16 Chinese provincial areas, the epidemic
failed to spread further and no bird flu hybrid passed among
people, he said.
However, he stressed, isolation lifting is not in itself a sign
that everything is okay in the region. Some compulsory measures are
still in effect. Former poultry farms are allowed to resume
operation six months after the isolation lifting.
It usually takes at least 21 days from the outbreak of the
epidemic to the lifting of isolation. It is based on the incubation
period of a virus set by international organizations on animal
health.
"We are not going to relax our vigilance after the lifting of
the quarantine," said the town's head Lin Yi. "More work still
needs to be done to improve our epidemic-control mechanisms to
prevent any resurgence of the disease."
Gan Qiangzhong, deputy magistrate of the county, said yesterday
that life in Dingdang is normal, and the farmers are starting to
plan spring ploughing.
The government has taken measures to reduce the tax burden on
poultry producers and cancel or reduce the levels of certain
charges and fees collected from poultry businesses, which have been
hard hit by the bird flu epidemic.
(China Daily February 23, 2004)