Tang Bowen, magistrate of Long 'an County in south China's Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, announced Sunday morning the ending
of isolation imposed on the county's Dingdang Town, which had been
stricken by the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu late last
month.
It is the first bird flu-affected area in China relieved of
isolation. The move was based on the official prescription on
lifting isolation imposed on highly pathogenic avian flu-afflicted
areas after thorough examinations from Chinese agricultural
experts.
Since the bird flu broke out on Jan. 23, governments at all
levels took resolute control measures, paving way for the day to
lift the isolation, said, Bi Qiang, a regional government official
in charge of bird flu control.
It had been confirmed that ducks dying in a farm in Dingdang
Town, Long'an County, were caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird
flu virus. The local governments slaughtered 14,000 poultry within
a three km radius of the duck farm, and vaccinated all poultry
within five km of the duck farm.
The area had been closed off in accordance with China's Law on
Animal Epidemic Prevention.??
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture received a report from
Guangxi that no new bird flu cases had been discovered or confirmed
for a succession of over 21 days since the last poultry in the
affected area of the town was slaughtered as stipulated.?
"We are told that emergent quarantine measures such as
isolation, culling of poultry confirmed of bird flu, disinfection
of poultry farms, as well as inoculation of poultry being
threatened by bird flu were carried out around Dingdang Town, and
the local quarantine officers of Guangxi supervised the quarantine
efforts at the area," said the?bird flu control spokesman with
the Ministry of Agriculture.
.?
Experts who were sent to assess the result of the bird flu
control efforts concluded that the outbreak of the deadly H5N1
strain of bird flu found in Dingdang Town had been uprooted and the
area met the requirements for being lifting out of isolation as
stipulated in the Emergent Countermeasures Against Bird Flu of
China and Technical Standards Regarding Fight Against Bird Flu.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Agriculture urged local
organizations for supervision over animal quarantine to tighten the
monitoring of bird flu in Dingdang and to prevent the occurrence of
new bird flu cases.
(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2004)