The Ministry of Agriculture yesterday ordered farming and veterinary bureaus across six provinces to ramp up bird flu prevention and control efforts as two flu outbreaks were declared in South Korea.

"Due to geographical closeness and the fact that South Korea and eastern China both stand along the East Asia-Australia bird migration route, the outbreak in South Korea has posed a severe threat to China's bird flu control situation," said an urgent notice issued yesterday by the ministry.

According to the notice, farming and veterinary bureaus across Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces should increase daily inspections in migrant bird habitats and border areas in order to prevent the disease spreading from South Korea.

Specifically, farming and veterinary bureaus, customs, and industrial and commercial administrations in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning are urgently required to halt any poultry imports from South Korea, paying particular attention to smuggling.

Also, a full-time inspection system is required for border areas in those provinces and inspection teams are required to collect and send sick bird samples to the country's bird flu laboratory in a timely fashion, said the notice.

All inspection teams are required to speedily report disease cases and epidemics, and ensure the storage of bird flu drugs, according to the notice.

Agriculture officials in South Korea yesterday confirmed the second case of highly pathogenic bird flu at a poultry farm as being the H5N1 strain, after confirming on Saturday it had its first outbreak of the H5N1 strain in three years.

The latest strain killed about 200 chickens at a farm, 3 kilometers from the first outbreak of the H5N1 strain in Iksan, around 250 kilometers south of Seoul.

The first outbreak has already prompted quarantine officials to slaughter hundreds of thousands of poultry as well as dogs and pigs.

Prior to yesterday's action from the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Council had recently led a renewed effort to combat bird flu.

In a document posted on its website, the State Council called for a restriction on the number of live poultry markets, and for them to be slowly moved away from urban areas in large and medium-size cities. It also bans construction of new live poultry markets in densely-populated urban areas.

The State Council also demanded veterinary inspection agencies at various levels intensify monitoring and quarantine of poultry products to insure no uncertified products enter the market.

About 2.9 million poultry birds were culled in 10 bird flu outbreaks in seven provinces on the Chinese mainland this year, according to statistics revealed by the Ministry of Agriculture earlier this month.

Thirteen people have been infected with bird flu this year, compared with seven last year.

(China Daily November 29, 2006)