March 19, 2008

China lifts bird flu quarantine in Guizhou

China announced that it has lifted bird flu quarantine in the southwestern province of Guizhou on Tuesday after no new cases were reported within the 21-day monitoring period.

At least 240,000 poultry have been slaughtered since the bird flu virus broke out on February 17 in Zheng'an County, Zunyi City in Guizhou, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

The ministry has urged localities to step up supervision and preventive measures to curb the new bird flu outbreaks.

China saw five bird flu outbreaks in poultry this year in areas including the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, two in the southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region and one in the southern Guangdong province.

To date, China has 29 human cases due to bird flu, with 19 of which to be fatal, the World Health Organization said.

The ministry warned this month that the country faced a more complicated epidemic control situation this year with a rise in the number of reported cases.