Quarantine order is lifted on first town hit by virus
Dingdang rejoices, but poultry raising can only resume six months later
The mainland yesterday lifted the isolation order on Dingdang town in Guangxi province - the nation's first town to be struck by bird flu in winter.
But officials said they would remain vigilant against any recurrence of the virus.
The decision was announced yesterday by Longan County magistrate Tang Bowen, triggering celebrations across the town where large-scale deaths of ducks were first reported on January 23. Four days later, the deadly H5N1 virus was confirmed as the cause of death.
Poultry farms in Dingdang will remain empty, however. Because the H5N1 virus can survive longer in animal faeces, the central government has decided that poultry rearing can only resume six months after the quarantine has ended.
Ministry of Agriculture spokesman Jia Youling assured the public that strict measures had been taken to ensure the reopened town was safe.
The measures included killing all poultry within 3km of the quarantine zone and vaccinating all poultry between 3km and 5km away. Poultry markets within 10km were closed.
The town premises have been thoroughly disinfected and no poultry had been transported outside of the zone.
Ending the quarantine yesterday was in accordance with standards set by the World Organisation for Animal Health, Mr Jia said. The town had been sealed off for 21 days - the incubation period for the H5N1 virus - after the last bird was killed.
Xinhua reported that before the decision was made, a team of government experts inspected the area.
The experts compared reports submitted by local officials with what they found first hand and confirmed that no local resident had shown symptoms of bird flu.
Xinhua also said that in addition to Dingdang town, national bird flu experts were reviewing the situations in four other areas and would soon decide whether to lift the isolation orders on these areas.
It quoted an unidentified official of the Ministry of Agriculture saying that as more areas came off the isolation list, the mainland entered a new phase in its battle against bird flu.
The official said an important indicator on whether bird flu was coming under control was comparing the number of new cases with the number of infected areas that had come off the isolation list.
'At present, there is no sign that the disease is spreading from infected areas and there has not been reports of human infections,' the official said.
As of yesterday, bird flu was affecting 16 of 31 mainland provinces.
But no new suspected cases have been reported from February 17 to yesterday.
