February 16, 2006

China to up monitoring of migratory birds
 

China will set up 200 new monitoring stations to keep track of migratory birds as a precaution against the spread of bird flu, state media reported Thursday.

The new stations will be built along major migration routes and in wild bird habitats, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing Zhuo Rongsheng, director of wildlife and forest plant protection at the State Forestry Administration.

The recent discovery of birds infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the Middle East, Western Europe and Africa has reinforced the belief that the virus is spreading via wild birds.

China has taken precautions such as closing nature reserves and requiring daily surveillance by wildlife monitoring stations.

The country already has 150 state-level stations and another 402 monitoring stations run by provincial governments, the Xinhua report said.

"All the stations were asked to record the information on migrant birds every day, information concerning bird species, their activities, and their droppings," it quoted Zhuo as saying.

Bird flu has killed at least 91 people since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Almost all the human deaths have been linked to contact with infected poultry, but experts fear H5N1 could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, possibly sparking a pandemic.

China has reported 12 cases of bird flu, with eight deaths.

Migratory flocks have begun flying back through China from Southeast Asia and Australia, raising risks that bird flu could spread further, the report said.