March 24, 2008

China steps up bird flu prevention campaigns

China intensified its monitoring of bird migration to prevent any more outbreaks of bird flu, according to the State Forestry Administration on Friday, the Xinhua said.

China administration urged local authorities to step up epidemic surveillance and raise people's awareness to prevent new outbreaks and offer training to work staff on the treatment of bodies of animals that died from the unidentified diseases.

Some experts said that migrating birds might transmit the deadly virus if they flew out of the epidemic-stricken areas.

This year, the country reported five bird flu outbreaks. The latest case in Guangdong Province killed 114 domestic fowl and led to the culling of another 518.

Meanwhile, Vietnam and Hong Kong also detected cases of bird flu.