August 9, 2004

Bird Flu Hit Dingdang China Restores Poultry Breeding 

Dingdang Town of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has fully restored poultry breeding, but local quarantine departments are helping farmers makes sure a similar disaster doesn't happen again.

Deputy town head Huang Fuyuan said that no avian flu cases had been detected over the past six months in Dingdang, the first area in China hit by avian flu in January this year, and its quarantine monitoring is over.

Local quarantine departments and poultry companies have teamed up to help farmers improve their breeding techniques. Under the guidance of technicians, farmers have grasped the skills in sanitation protection and bacteria injection.

Fengxiang Poultry Breeding Country, the largest of its kind in Guangxi, south China, launched a special program to encourage poultry-breeding households to renovate their henhouses.

According to the company's requirements, farmers should build henhouses away from people's houses to reduce infection possibilities. Only those who have got their henhouses up to the sanitation standards can buy chicks from the company.

Despite the epidemic earlier this year, Huang said that he was fully confident in local poultry breeding industry.