Bird flu has been ruled out as the cause of death of 8,000 chicks at two chicken farms in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

Examinations and laboratory tests showed the chicks died from a parasitic disease.

Another 3,000 chicks in the two farms have been slaughtered to prevent the disease from further spreading in the city, according to Zhang Yenong, the owner of the two sites, yesterday.

Zhang learnt the examination findings from Guangzhou's Baiyun District Bureau of Agriculture on Tuesday. His chicks tested negative for the H5N1 virus.

"My chicken farms have also been sterilized by special personnel from the city's agricultural departments in the past two days," Zhang said.

He has been compensated with a total of 8,000 yuan (US$1,000) by local government after his chicks were slaughtered.

Zhang, a farmer from Chendong Village in Zhongluotan Township in Guangzhou's Baiyun District, purchased 11,000 chicks in late January, but some began dying from the middle of last month.

"Towards the end of the month, 100 chicks were dying every day," said Zhang, who has been raising chickens for more than 15 years. But he now plans to give up raising chicks for the moment.

The large number of chicks that suddenly died raised great concern from local relevant government departments amid fears of a bird flu outbreak.

A special task force was immediately established and arrived at Zhang's chicken farms to conduct dissecting examinations on site and take samples for further laboratory tests earlier this week.

It determined they died of coccidiosis, a common parasitical disease in poultry across the world.

According to sources from Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Agriculture, Guangdong has remained free of H5N1 bird flu thanks to the strict prevention and inspection measures that local governments had introduced in the past months.

The southern province, which borders Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, has the country's largest number of chicken farms.

The province is currently selling more than 20,000 live chickens to Hong Kong a day.

(China Daily March 3, 2006)