Beijing quarantines civet cats, but no immediate plan for culling

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Beijing quarantines civet cats, but no immediate plan for culling

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Wildlife protection and forestry police staged a shock inspection on wildlife farms, markets and restaurants Wednesday in the Chinese capital, hoping to stem any possible resurgence of SARS via wildlife.

"We did not find any civet cats on the market or in restaurants during our inspection," a police spokesman said.

"The only civet farm has been quarantined and we haven't decided how to deal with the animals," he said.

The Chinese mainland reported its first diagnosed SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) case since July on Monday in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong province.

Local government departments in China beefed up their supervision and management of wildlife markets this week after genetic tests indicated a possible link between the SARS patient and a virus found in the civet cats.

Civet cats are now strictly monitored across China as forestry departments in Hainan, Hebei and Liaoning provinces began to take emergency measures to collect and quarantine the wild animals.

Guangdong provincial authorities have all civet cats around the province killed and shut down all wildlife sales markets to prevent any spread of SARS.

To date, 289 civet cats have been quarantined in Beijing's only civet farm in Lucheng town in southern Tongzhou district.

"We haven't sold even a single civet cat since our farm was put off limits to outsiders since the SARS outbreak last year," said Deng Shicai, the farm owner.

"All the civet dung was disinfected and we disinfect our only two employees whenever they leave the farm," Deng said.

Beijing put some 1,800 kinds of wildlife on its protection list and banned restaurants from offering civet while 10 of the animals in Beijing Zoo have also been quarantined since the SARS outbreak last year.

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