Bird flu has been ruled out as the cause of death of 8,000
chicks at two chicken farms in Guangzhou, capital of
Guangdong Province.
Examinations and laboratory tests showed the chicks died from a
parasitic disease.
Another 3,000 chicks in the two farms have been slaughtered to
prevent the disease from further spreading in the city, according
to Zhang Yenong, the owner of the two sites, yesterday.
Zhang learnt the examination findings from Guangzhou's Baiyun
District Bureau of Agriculture on Tuesday. His chicks tested
negative for the H5N1 virus.
"My chicken farms have also been sterilized by special personnel
from the city's agricultural departments in the past two days,"
Zhang said.
He has been compensated with a total of 8,000 yuan (US$1,000) by
local government after his chicks were slaughtered.
Zhang, a farmer from Chendong Village in Zhongluotan Township in
Guangzhou's Baiyun District, purchased 11,000 chicks in late
January, but some began dying from the middle of last month.
"Towards the end of the month, 100 chicks were dying every day,"
said Zhang, who has been raising chickens for more than 15 years.
But he now plans to give up raising chicks for the moment.
The large number of chicks that suddenly died raised great
concern from local relevant government departments amid fears of a
bird flu outbreak.
A special task force was immediately established and arrived at
Zhang's chicken farms to conduct dissecting examinations on site
and take samples for further laboratory tests earlier this
week.
It determined they died of coccidiosis, a common parasitical
disease in poultry across the world.
According to sources from Guangdong Provincial Bureau of
Agriculture, Guangdong has remained free of H5N1 bird flu thanks to
the strict prevention and inspection measures that local
governments had introduced in the past months.
The southern province, which borders Hong Kong and Macao special
administrative regions, has the country's largest number of chicken
farms.
The province is currently selling more than 20,000 live chickens
to Hong Kong a day.
(China Daily March 3, 2006)