China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has taken a range of measures
to prevent bird flu spread in domestic market, its sources said on
Monday.
The MOC has established a quick response mechanism in this area,
making a daily report on the commodity market in the bird flu
epidemic zone and monitoring the sales and price fluctuations of
fowl and eggs in 113 major cities across the country.
Meanwhile, local authorities have also enhanced relevant
regulations over poultry wholesale and retail enterprises, asking
them to provide certificates so as to guarantee that products came
from reliable sources.
The MOC stepped up management over poultry and livestock
culling, urging slaughterhouses to conduct intensified disinfection
over poultry transport vehicles as well as loading and unloading
equipment.
Moreover, the ministry ordered local departments not to prohibit
the transport of qualified and examined poultry products from
epidemic zones, so as to safeguard the normal circulation of these
products.
This year, China has reported three outbreaks of bird flu among
poultry, a sharp decrease compared with 49 such cases during the
same period of 2004, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
A total of 35 bird flu outbreaks have been reported in China
since 2005, which sickened 194,000 fowl and culled 186,000 of them,
the MOA claimed. About 22.8 million fowl were culled to halt the
disease from spreading and all the outbreaks have been
contained.
(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2006)