Northeast China's Liaoning Province has started culling the
poultry in the bird flu-hit county of Heishan, local official said
Saturday evening, adding that all the poultry in the region must be
slaughtered by zero hour on Sunday.
The operation commenced at 4 PM Saturday and armed police
officers and related technical professionals have been mobilized to
carry out the compulsory slaughtering mission in the bird flu-hit
areas of the Heishan County in the Jinzhou City, said Wang Yunwen,
deputy secretary-general of the Jinzhou municipal government.
Local farmers who raise poultry found some chickens dying in the
county's Badaohao township and reported the case to the local
government. China's Ministry of Agriculture confirmed the case as
H5N1 bird flu on Thursday.
So far, a total of 1,700 local officials have been assigned to
the epidemic areas to persuade local farmers to be cooperative in
the compulsory mission and help stabilize the situation, Wang
said.
To ensure public health, local government has also sent 100
medical workers to the villages to offer free medical check and
vaccination for local farmers, he said.
In addition, 100 police officers have been deployed to seal off
the epidemic areas, he said.
"Currently in Heishan, the people are calm, social order is
normal and the price of goods is stable," Wang said.
For the areas that have not been affected by the bird flu, the
Heishan County government has bought 10.85 million milliliters of
bacterin for prevention of H5N1 bird flu, according to Du Jinkui,
director of the Information Office of the Jinzhou municipal
government.
"We must ensure that 100 percent of the poultry in those areas
are immune," he said.
Heishan County is located on migratory birds' route from East
Asia to Australia, and more than 20 magpies and other wild birds
have been spotted.
(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2005)