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Beijing poultry markets closed
07/11/2005 20:14 - (SA)
Beijing - The Beijing municipal government has ordered live poultry and pet bird markets shut down in urban areas in an effort to curb the spread of bird flu, officials said on Monday.
The sales of live chicken, ducks and geese in 168 markets in the city have already stopped after the bans were ordered on Sunday, Liu Yaqing, said deputy director general of the Beijing agricultural bureau.
The capital's long-standing and popular pet bird markets have also been ordered to close down, she said.
Citizens can continue to raise pet birds at home. But allowing homing pigeons to fly around the capital - a tradition that goes back hundreds of years - has also been banned, Liu said.
Some 20 million out of 23.9 million farm-raised poultry in the city have been vaccinated for bird flu, she said, while inspectors are going door to door in urban areas to confiscate family-raised poultry.
So far the city has tested 2 500 people including poultry farmers or butchers for the bird flu, with no cases found as of Monday, Liu said.
Migration increases risk of virus
Wild birds are also being monitored around reservoirs in the city's outskirts as well in Beijing parks.
"With the movement of migrating birds there is a greater possibility for the virus to spread to other areas," Liu said.
"It is very difficult for us to isolate contact between poultry in farmhouses and wild birds, so we face great challenges."
Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since 2003.
After insisting for weeks that no one has died from bird flu in China, the government said on Sunday it was investigating whether a 12-year-old girl who died last month in central Hunan province may have been a victim of the virus.
Health authorities initially said she died from pneumonia but called on Sunday for help from the World Health Organisation to investigate further.
The girl and two of her family members, who have since recovered, all suffered from bird flu-like symptoms.
The bird flu has appeared in four provinces and regions in China since late September, the onset of the annual flu season - Inner Mongolia, Hunan, Anhui and Liaoning province.
- AFP
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