July 12, 2004

China's Anhui Province Wraps Up Compulsory Vaccination Around Bird Flu Site 

The compulsory vaccination work over birds that are raised three to eight kilometers away from the recent bird flu outbreak site has finished, government officials of east China's Anhui Province said.

A total of 1.4 milliliters of vaccine has been distributed to chicken raisers within the compulsory vaccination areas, according to the provincial bird flu prevention headquarters.

Chaohu City, where bird flu broke out on July 3 in its Juchao District, sent 40 technicians to carry out household-to-household prevention work in every village. The government of Chuzhou City, next to Chaohu, ordered tight supervision over vaccination work and imposed on-the-spot checks to ensure the vaccination order was closely followed.

Compensation money for those raisers whose birds were culled had been paid in time by late Saturday, totaling 286,400 yuan (34,500 US dollars), according to Zhu Tonggui, spokesman for the headquarters of Juchao District where the latest bird flu cases were reported.

The compensation went to 3,075 raisers in 10 villages whose 28,600 birds were decimated for bird flu control and prevention. The compensation standard was 10 yuan (1.2 US dollars) for each grown-up chicken, duck and goose, five yuan (0.6 US dollars) for a chick bird and a dove, according to Zhu.