July 28, 2004

Avian Flu Quarantine In East China Province Ends

Juchao District, Chaohu City of east China's Anhui Province ended its 21-day battle against the highly pathogenic avian influenza on Wednesday morning.

Director Li Jiafa of the Anti-avian-flu Headquarters of Juchao District said that no new cases had been suspected or confirmed for 21 successive days since bird flu was confirmed, and the last batch of birds in the affected area was culled as stipulated.

Experts in animal epidemics and officials concluded after inspections that the disease had been eradicated in the district. The area had also met the requirements for the lifting of isolation orders.

Li said that to be safe, monitoring will continue and no poultry breeding would be allowed in the area immediately. Meanwhile, efforts are being made by local governments to reduce the losses of farmers.

After the national avian flu reference laboratory confirmed on July 6 that the chicken's death in the district was caused by H5N1, a highly pathogenic bird flu virus, the provincial government started an emergency plan to set up three quarantine stations at major entrances to the affected spot. All poultry within a radius of three km from the infected spot were culled, disinfected and buried deeply.

On July 8, all poultry within a radius of three to eight km were given compulsory immunization.