China declears bird flu control success

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 16, 2004

China declears bird flu control success

The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) on Tuesday morning declared initial-stage success in fighting against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

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The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) on Tuesday morning declared initial-stage success in fighting against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

The announcement was made by Jia Youling, MOA spokesman for HPAI Control, at a specially organized press conference.

With the infected areas in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region being lifted out of isolation as of Tuesday, all the 49 HPAI confirmed cases as have been stamped out,said Jia.

Neither new HPAI cases nor cases of human infection have been reported in the past 29 days in a row, the MOA spokesman stressed.

HPAI hit 16 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions in China from Jan. 27 to March 16, posting a big threat to people's properties and health. Confronted with the sudden outbreak of theepidemic, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and the State Council attached great importance to prevention and control of the epidemic, made emergent arrangements,implemented the contingency plan and established the National HPAI Prevention and Control Headquarters, Jia said.

Thanks to concerted efforts made by people from different walksof life in the past more than one month, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has now been brought under control, said Jia.

Bird flu prevention a long-term task

A senior Chinese official in charge of bird flu control said the situation in bird flu prevention and control is still grave, though the country lifted cordons in all the infected areas on Tuesday.

Outlining major problems in bird flu control in a press conference, Jia Youling, spokesman in charge of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) control under the Ministry of Agriculture, said there are still water fowls that carry the virus.

Secondly, when the weather is warming up in most parts of the north, migratory birds will fly northwards on a large scale, whichmay result in the spread of the pathogen, he added.

Thirdly, there will be more chances for the trans-regional spread of the disease as there will be more long distance transportation of poultry and substantial replenishment of birds in the poultry production.

Fourth, the disease still exists in some countries or regions surrounding China, hence the risk of the disease spreading into China.

Finally, the tremendous difficulty encountered in the disease prevention and control has not been overcome at the root since thepoultry production of China is a large, wide-spreading industry, and many places suffer from very poor conditions for disease control.

Therefore, the possibility of HPAI coming again is great, and no effort should be spared in its prevention and control, Jia stressed.

In light of the current situation, the Ministry of Agriculture calls on the competent animal husbandry and veterinary authoritiesto follow up with the plans of the National HPAI Prevention and Control Headquarters and sum up the experience they have obtained in past few weeks so as to further intensify the work of combatingthe epidemic.

Local agencies must keep vigilance and avoid lax in mind, action and leadership so as to keep their functions running smoothly, measures in place and quick response capacity ready oncethe epidemic occurs again, Jia said.

China will build an effective and long-term epizootic prevention mechanism in order to enhance the overall control capacity across the country, he concluded.

Source: Xinhua

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