October 26, 2006

China lifts poultry export ban on bird flu-hit region

China has lifted a poultry export ban on a region of Inner Mongolia where bird flu broke out last month, state media reported.

The ban was imposed on the Jiuyuan district of Baotou city, after about 1,000 chickens and ducks died on a poultry farm there.

About 30,000 fowl within three kilometers of the farm were subsequently slaughtered.

Experts with the regional headquarters for the prevention of major animal-related epidemics said that no new outbreak of bird flu had been reported since the last poultry was culled 21 days ago.

There have been 40 officially reported outbreaks of the potentially deadly bird flu in China since October last year.

The whole flock of 42.6 million domestic fowls in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region were vaccinated, according to the region's Bird Flu Control Headquarters Office.

Two outbreaks of bird flu have been reported last month, which killed around 2,000 domestic poultry in the Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions.