China's Ministry of Agriculture confirmed Saturday that an
outbreak of H5N1 bird flu at Shijiping Village in Yiyang City of Hunan Province has killed more than 11,000
heads of poultry.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the Hunan provincial government
immediately implemented an emergency plan to deal with the
outbreak, culling a further 52,800 birds to prevent any spread of
the disease.
Agriculture officials say that the outbreak had
been?brought under control.
The last reported cases occurred on March 1, when a batch of
chickens suddenly died in a market in Lhasa, capital of
southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region, which were confirmed to have
contracted the H5 virus, according to the ministry. Some 680
chickens died and another 6,990 birds were culled.
Of late, Zhong Nanshan, a SARS expert and president of Chinese
Medical Association, has given a warning of a new bird flu
outbreak.
Millions of birds have been slaughtered in order to combat the
pandemic in China, which has also launched a massive effort to
vaccinate poultry.
Animal quarantine authority in Guangzhou, capital city of
Southern China's Guangdong province, has pushed for the sales of
the vaccinated chickens with rings marking the approved quality
tied on the chicken legs.
Poultry buyers began to pay more heed to the quarantine
certificates issued by the authority to keep away from the
pandemic.
(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2007)