July 9, 2004

 

 

China Completes Poultry Slaughter To Control Bird Flu

 

Sanitation workers have completed the slaughter of nearly 30,000 poultry in an attempt to contain an outbreak of bird flu in eastern China, a local animal health official said Thursday.

 

Workers have also finished vaccinating all birds within a five-kilometer radius of the infected lakeside farm near the city of Chaohu in Anhui province, said Zhu Tonggui, director of the anti-bird flu headquarters.

 

"I can assure you we destroyed all possible sources of contamination in the area," Zhu said in a telephone interview. "We have a responsibility for the safety of people living here, including ourselves."

 

The Anhui farm was quarantined following confirmation Tuesday of the country's first reported outbreak since it declared it had "stamped out" the disease nearly four months ago.

 

Thailand and Vietnam have also reported new outbreaks of the severe strain of avian flu virus that decimated flocks earlier this year and jumped to people in the two countries, killing 24.

 

Officials have called the Anhui outbreak an isolated event and say they suspect it may have originated with waterfowl or migrating birds. All poultry inside three kilometers has been targeted for slaughter.

 

Zhu said workers finished disposing of 28,640 birds early Wednesday evening. Carcasses were placed in five-meter-deep lime-smeared pits, burned, then covered again with lime and two meters of earth.

 

Zhu said more than 100 sanitary workers remained in the area to oversee sterilization measures and ensure quarantined poultry don't escape.

 

People and vehicles coming and going from the area were being disinfected and poultry farms have been ordered to clean or replace their equipment.

 

All trade in and slaughter of live birds were also banned within 10 kilometers of the area, Xinhua said.

 

In southeastern Guangdong province bordering Hong Kong, farms have been urged to prevent contact with wild birds and immunize all poultry at least twice.

 

Hong Kong and China's capital, Beijing, have suspended poultry imports from Anhui.