The Guangzhou municipal government on Tuesday lifted the quarantine on the bird flu-infected village of Sixian Village in Panyu district, three weeks after authorities confirmed the outbreak.

Accordingly, all the poultry markets and wet markets within a 13 km radius of the village, which had been closed down, resumed business.

The city authorities announced, after a final check on Monday, that no more poultry cases had been reported since a cull of poultry 21 days ago in Sixian Village, and no human cases of bird flu found.

"Animal epidemic prevention experts have finished the final testing of the infected region and the outcome indicates that the region is safe now," Fang Zhenggang, Director of Guangzhou Animal Epidemic Prevention Supervision Institute, said.

Fang said that if no new cases occurred, the epidemic was deemed well under control, as the longest latent period for the subtype H5N1 virus in animals is 21 days.

The bird flu broke out on September 5, killing 9,830 ducks in just a couple of days in Sixian village.

The local government imposed the shutdown on the village and culled an additional 153,320 domestic fowl to prevent the spread of the disease, disinfected all contaminated areas and closing 68 poultry and related products markets within a radius of 13 kilometers on September 18, the second day after the epidemic had been confirmed as a subtype H5N1 bird flu by the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory.

Qu, a Sixian villager, said that he was "very happy" that the quarantine had been lifted.

Guangzhou has built up a fast epidemic treatment mechanism. Residents can report an epidemic through Tel: 86052068, said Zhou Caixin, vice head of Guangzhou Agriculture Bureau.

Editor: Yan