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China: 200 000 chickens culled
08/02/2006 13:24 - (SA)
Beijing - Nearly 200 000 chickens have been culled in northern China after the world's most populous nation reported its first outbreak of bird flu in nearly a month, said the government officials on Wednesday.
The agriculture ministry said that the outbreak took place in a large poultry farm in northern China's Shanxi province, with 15 000 chickens dying from the virus in two days last week.
The ministry said local authorities immediately started culling poultry within a three-kilometre radius of the affected farm, and had so far destroyed 187 745 fowl.
China had now reported 34 outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry since the beginning of last year, with most appearing since October. The virus had infected 10 people, killing seven of them.
21.1m poultry culled
It had also a major impact on the nation's poultry industry, which was the world's biggest with an annual production of 14 billion birds.
The government said in November last year that 21.1 million poultry had been culled because of the bird flu virus, while the government had attempted to vaccinate every chicken in the country.
The previous outbreak was reported on January 10 in the southern province of Guizhou, although human fatalities had since been recorded in areas where the virus was not detected.
The latest outbreak, in Yangquan city of Shanxi province, took place during China's week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which officially ended on Saturday.
Poultry given as gifts
United Nations experts had warned that the widespread movement of people and poultry during such festivals could fuel the spread of the virus.
Chicken consumption skyrocketed at this time in China and many Asian countries.
People also had a habit of giving poultry as gifts to their relatives or friends, and slaughtering chicken at home to ensure freshness - raising the chances of spreading the virus.
In Hong Kong, a chicken infected with bird flu was smuggled across the border with mainland China's southern Guangdong province and given to a local family as a gift, sparking a health scare in the territory.
However, it was unclear what caused the latest outbreak in Shanxi. The agriculture ministry didn't release information on the cause.
Migratory birds
UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's representative in China, Noureddin Mona, said: "Transportation is one of the factors, the movement of animals and poultry... migratory birds could be one reason.
"I doubt someone can figure out very quickly what's the cause. The most important thing for us is, the virus is still circulating and jumping from one area to another."
Mona urged China and other countries to remain on high alert as the ongoing winter continued to provide ideal conditions for the virus to survive.
Bird flu had killed at least 85 people since 2003, with most of the deaths in Asia, although the virus had now reached Eastern Europe and killed people in Turkey.
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