An outbreak of bird flu in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
last week has been put under control and no human infection was reported,
according to the regional government.
As of zero hour of October 2, no new deaths of poultry and no human case of
bird flu were reported, a regional government spokesman said on Monday.
Nearly 1,000 chickens and ducks reportedly died suddenly in a poultry farm in
Xincheng village of Jiuyuan District of Baotou city on September 27. The
national avian influenza laboratory later confirmed that the H5N1 virus was
found in samples of the dead poultry in Xincheng village.
Zhang Shaolin, owner of the farm, and his wife bought some 5,400 chickens and
ducks from August 21 to September 20 from other places of the county.
The couple found more than 70 chickens and ducks dead in the evening of
September 20.
Dead chickens and ducks were also found in the following days and the death
toll rose to 985 as of September 27 when the couple reported the case to the
veterinarian station of Baotou city.
Baotou city veterinarian station later reported the case and sent samples of
the dead poultry to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Animal Epidemic
Disease Control Center and the national avian influenza laboratory.
Local agricultural department immediately quarantined the infected area.
Zhang and his wife were also quarantined and people who had close contact with
them were under observation.
To date, 17,616 chickens and ducks have been culled to control the outbreak.
A batch of bird flu vaccines allocated by the Ministry of Agriculture reached
Baotou early Monday morning. All poultry in Jiuyuan District will be inoculated
in the coming 10 days.
Investigation is being conducted to find where did Zhang bought these
chickens and ducks and where did he sold the poultry.
China has reported nine outbreaks of bird flu in poultry this year, in
northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, north China's Shanxi Province and
Inner Mongolia, east China's Anhui Province, southwestern Guizhou and Sichuan
provinces and the central province of Hunan.
