November 15, 2005

China's Anhui hit by H5N1 bird flu

China's ministry of agriculture has reported a bird flu outbreak in Fanwei village near Huainan city, Anhui province.

800 domesticated birds died in the village during early November, and the national bird flu lab diagnosed the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu as the cause in mid-November.

The ministry of agriculture has sent expert panels and supervision teams several times to Anhui, and has stepped up quarantine and culling measures there.

Lately, the director of the national epizootiology research center has also visited the epidemic zone to help in research and epidemic tracing work, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, local authorities have immediately quarantined the epidemic zone, and disinfected people, vehicles and relevant goods entering or leaving the area.

All poultry in the epidemic zone were also destroyed, and all poultry markets within 10 kilometres of the epidemic zone have been closed. So far, over 126,000 birds within three kilometres of the epidemic zone were reportedly culled already.