Macao to Resume Waterfowl Imports from China's InteriorThe Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) will soon resume the imports of waterfowl from China' s interior, more than three months after its entire poultry population were slaughtered to contain the spread of a bird flu virus.Waterfowl will be carried to the Macao market "at any time", as relevant quarantine departments and feed lots in the interior have made full preparations for the exports, according to sources from the Provisional Municipal Council of Macao Thursday. The ducks and geese exported to Macao will have to be transported in special coops to prevent mutual infection and pass stringent quarantine inspections, the source said. The import of live chicken was resumed on June 18, while that of waterfowl was postponed due to the fact that ducks and geese are the natural carriers of the bird flu virus. Macao destroyed roughly 60,000 poultry when the H5N1 virus was found in a few geese in mid-May. The SAR government allocated 5.5 million patacas (687,500 US dollars) for destroying the poultry and compensating the workers and vendors for their losses. No local residents have been reportedly infected with the bird flu. |
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