Department of agriculture, Guangdong Provincial People's Government

1. The outbreak of the highly pathogenic bird flu in Guangdong and how we tackle this problem.

Since January 30th, some suspected cases of the highly pathogenic bird flu have been detected in some individual localities in Guangdong Province. Up to February 5th, there are 4 suspected cases altogether, among which one has been identified as the confirmed case. The bird flu affected localities are Quxi Town of Jiedong County, Guxiang Town of Chao'an County, Lishao Toun of Luoding City and Ketang Town of Haifeng County. In total 2,717 poultry showed illness and 2,325 died. Samples of these sick birds have been timely sent to National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory located in the city of Ha'er'bin for further confirmation. The case in Chao'an County was confirmed as the H5N1 subtype bird flu. The other 3 cases are yet to be confirmed.

Since the bird flu outbreak occurred, related government authorities have taken immediate action to designate the bird flu-hit spot, the bird flu-hit area and the threatened area. The area within 3 kilometers of the bird flu-hit spot was designated as the bird flu-hit area, and poultry within this area have been quarantined, disinfected, culled and disposed of in a harmless way. The area within 5 kilometers of the bird flu-hit area was designated as the threatened area, and poultry within this area have received compulsory vaccination. Up to February 5h, altogether 92,868 poultry within the four bird flu-hit areas have been culled, and 67,452 poultry vaccinated. Currently the bird flu is now effectively contained without spreading and no human infections have been detected.

2. Major measures taken to handle the bird flu outbreak.

Confronting the bird flu outbreak, Guangdong Province has taken effective measures of prevention and monitoring. The Guangdong Provincial Committee of CPC and Guangdong Provincial People's Government attach great importance to the work of preventing bird flu. Secretary Zhang Dejiang and Governor Huang Huahua both gave important instructions on the prevention work and wrote letters in person to all mayors in Guangdong Province, demanding they should give top priority to the work of bird flu prevention. We have also founded a provincial coordinating leading group for bird flu prevention, with Executive Vice Governor Zhang Yangsheng as the director and Vice Governor Li Ronggeng and Vice Governor Lei Yulan as the deputy directors. In addition, the Guangdong Provincial Bird Flu Prevention Headquarters have been established, with Vice Governor Li Ronggeng and the director general and Vice Secretary General of Guangdong Government Zhou Binnan as the deputy director general. The Headquarters consists of 16 government departments, including the Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Guangdong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. The Headquarters is responsible for the prevention and monitoring of the bird flu across the province. The following are some of the emergent measures that have been put into force.

1) Experts are organized to conduct analysis of the bird flu situations inside and outside the province and to produce effective measures for prevention.

2) The monitoring of animal epidemic situation and the epidemic reporting system have been strengthened, so that the animal epidemic situation is under close watch. The Bird Flu Prevention Headquarters is working 24 hours a day and the daily report system and zero report system are now in effect.

3) The emergence system against bird flu has been started up. In case any new case occurs, we will timely quarantine the hit-area and prevent the spread according to the principle of "earliness, swiftness, strictness and small-scale", and in line with the Animal Quarantine Law and Guangdong Provincial Emergency Plan for the Prevention of Bird Flu.

4) H5 subtype bird flu vaccines are channeled to the bird flu-hit and threatened areas to vaccinate poultry.

5) 10 million RMB have been appropriated by Guangdong Province to finance vaccination in mountainous areas, underdeveloped areas and areas neighboring Guangxi Province and Hunan Province.

6) The work of quarantine in poultry producing areas and monitoring of poultry transportation and poultry markets have been intensified to cut off possible transmission channels.

7) The poultry antibody levels are closely monitored to increase the vaccination protection rate, and

8) The work of publicity on preventing bird flu has been carried out widely. Experts are organized to introduce to the general public knowledge on bird flu through various media. Pamphlets on bird flu prevention are handed out in cities, counties and villages.

3. Predictions on the bird flu epidemic tendency in Guangdong Province.

Bird flu is highly pathogenic infectious disease caused by influenza A virus. The current bird flu outbreak in our neighboring countries is a sudden one, affecting a number of countries and resulting in large amount of poultry loss. It is posing a severe threat to Guangdong Province. The work of bird flu prevention is tough, given that Guangdong has frequent international exchanges and a population of poultry as large as 340 million.

For years, both the central government and the provincial government have attached great importance to animal epidemic prevention. We now have a complete animal epidemic prevention network and system, and preventive measures have been implemented in large-scale poultry farms. Since the outbreak of bird flu outside China, The Guangdong Provincial Committee of CPC and Guangdong Provincial People's Government give great concern and CPC committees and governments at local levels began to take quick actions. In particular, the agriculture departments are fully committed to the work of bird flu prevention, with active support from related Government departments, including department of health, administration of industry and commerce and Bureau of Exit-Entry Inspection and Quarantine. Poultry producers have also strengthened preventative measures. Now the rising temperature is favorable for containing and finally destroying bird flu. On these accounts, we continue to implement the preventative measures across the province, large-scale outbreak or spread of the bird flu will not occur.

Editor: Wing