China has banned the sale, transportation, and consumption of animals and birds that die of unknown illnesses and is offering rewards for reports of sudden animal or bird deaths as it battles bird flu.

The east China province of Shandong also activated a daily surveillance of migratory birds out of fear they would spread the virus.

Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds began arriving from north China, Mongolia, and Russia in late October and are expected to spend their winter in or pass through the coastal province on their way to warmer Pacific islands.

Amid fears of a pandemic, the Ministry of Agriculture ordered agriculture and veterinary authorities nationwide immediately to report deaths of animals or birds.

"Rewards should be given to those people who have reported illnesses," said a notice about the disposal of dead animals or birds on the ministry's website on Monday. It did not specify what sort of reward would be offered.

The directive bans the sale, transportation, processing and consumption of animals or birds that have died of unknown illnesses and requires them to be buried, burned or disposed of by chemical processing.

Cities across China have stepped up measures to combat bird flu after recent outbreaks in the Inner Mongolia region and the provinces of Hunan and Anhui, which killed thousands of chickens, ducks and geese.

The State Forestry Administration had ordered localities to set up 118 monitoring stations nationwide to monitor migratory birds as the migration season arrives.

More than 400 similar monitoring stations have also been established by local governments across China, the Xinhua News Agency said.

In May some 6,000 wild geese were killed during a bird flu outbreak in a migratory bird habitat in Qinghai Lake of northwestern China's Qinghai Province.

In the province of Shandong, the migration season lasts till March.

"Specialists in four stations were asked to record the information on migrant birds every day, information concerning bird species, their activities, and their droppings," said Huang Shiquan, an official with the wildlife protection bureau of Shandong's forestry department.

Sick or dead birds, if found, should immediately be tested for bird flu, he said.

The forestry administration said Monday it had received no report of avian flu among migratory birds since June, according to Xinhua.

"All the local forestry authorities have banned people, livestock and poultry from entering the areas where migratory birds gather, in a bid to avoid mutual contagion of possible avian flu ...," said Zhuo Rongsheng, director of the administration's wildlife protection department.

The southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, has closed bird-watching towers in nature reserves and warned visitors not to touch or buy wild birds, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

The agriculture ministry on Friday insisted that no human cases of bird flu had been documented in China, although the death of a 12-year-old girl this month in Hunan after she ate a sick chicken aroused concern.

Chinese health officials said she died of pneumonia. The World Health Organization has said it needs more information about the death.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Asia since late 2003.

(China Daily/Agencies November 1, 2005)