Nanjing orders livestock cull to stem spread of H7N9 virus
City tells residents to cull their domestic animals by Tuesday to stem spread of H7N9 as five more bird flu cases are confirmed
Residents of Nanjing, Jiangsu province, are now banned from raising livestock as health authorities yesterday confirmed that five more people have contracted the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus in the Yangtze River Delta.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday that 17 out of 2,099 samples from farms and markets in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui had tested positive for the virus.
Eleven were from chicken samples from Jiangsu, two from duck samples from Zhejiang, and one from a poultry wholesale market in Anhui.
Researchers from the Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said yesterday they found that the H7N9 virus shows a genetic reassortment involving wild birds from east Asia, including South Korea, and chickens from east China, Xinhua reported.
Concerned that the virus might spread, Nanjing has issued an ultimatum to residents, telling them to cull their domestic livestock by Tuesday, and ordered the clearance of vegetables planted in public areas.