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Bird Flu brought under control in Tibet
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-08-12 21:09
The Ministry of Agriculture confirmed a bird flu outbreak occurred at the
beginning of August on a chicken farm in the suburbs of Lhasa, capital of
southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, but said it has now been brought
under control.
"So far, the bird flu outbreak has been under control, and no other similar
cases has been reported in other parts of the autonomous region," said a
high-ranking official with the ministry.
In the wake of the case, the official said, the local government instituted
rigid measures to stem the spread of the epidemic.
The local government has culled 2,608 chickens, disinfected and closed the
farm, which belongs to the Regional Institute of Animal Husbandry Science.
Lhasa also spotted a bird flu case in 2004.
The official said the outbreak this year started on August 1. Atotal of 133
breeding chickens were infected and died. The State Bird Flu Reference
Laboratory later confirmed that these chickens were infected with the H5N1 bird
flu virus.
In compliance with the requirements for preventing and treating the highly
pathogenic H5N1 strain of the avian influenza, the autonomous region has adopted
substantial measures such as emergency inoculation of all fowls five km away
from the venue of the suspected outbreak, tightening the monitoring of all
breeding farms in Lhasa, and launching a daily epidemic reporting mechanism.
Up to now, vaccines for water fowl have been distributed to allareas across
Tibet except Ngari Prefecture.
The official said that right after the outbreak of the case, the ministry
reported the case to international organizations likethe United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health as well as
authorities in China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan districts.
After receiving the report from the ministry, Hong Kong's department for
Health, Welfare and Food stopped dealing with applications from Tibet to sell
poultry. The department said it would closely monitor the development of the
case in the next few weeks.
From January 27 to March 16, 2004, China reported 49 confirmed bird flu cases
in 16 provinces, municipalities or autonomous regions of the country. With
measures taken by Chinese governmentsat all levels, the deadly virus was curbed
in over one month. In 2005, northwest China's Qinghai province and Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region had reported three cases in May and June.
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