The Ministry of Agriculture said Monday that the bird flu
outbreak had ended in Shanghai's
Nanhui District and Yongkang City, Zhejiang
Province. Quarantine was lifted on both areas.
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Jia Youling, an avian influenza control spokesman for the ministry,
said that no new bird flu cases had been reported or confirmed for
21 days after the required culling of poultry in the affected
areas.
The outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu strain was reported on January
29 in Shanghai and on January 31 in Zhejiang.
Experts who were dispatched to the areas to assess the outcome
of control efforts concluded that the disease had been eradicated
and the areas met the requirements for removal from quarantine as
set out in the Emergency Countermeasures Against Avian Influenza of
China and the Technical Standards Regarding the Fight Against Avian
Influenza.
The Ministry of Agriculture urged local organizations to
continue supervising animal quarantine to prevent the occurrence of
new cases.
The ministry received no reports of new suspected or confirmed
avian influenza cases in China Monday, said spokesman Jia.
(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2004)