Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu said Thursday (Feb 26th) the possibility remained that bird flu may infect people and could spread more widely though no new cases had been reported for several days.

Hui, who is also head of the China national headquarters for the prevention and control of highly pathogenic avian influenza, made the remarks in a special report on bird flu control at the seventh session of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC).

Hui said that by Feb. 25, bird flu had occurred in 16 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across China, and 49 cases had been confirmed.

Of the 143,000 poultry affected by the virus, 128,000 had died, Hui said, adding 8.51 million birds had been slaughtered and 12.11million vaccinated by Feb. 25 to prevent the disease from spreading.

He said the Chinese government had allocated 50 million yuan (6million US dollars) to boost the production of bird flu vaccines.

The Chinese government had also appropriated 100 million yuan (12 million US dollars) in special funding for research into the disease and developing preventive technologies.

Though there had been no new cases reported for several days, China was still in a critical stage of fighting bird flu, and efforts should be stepped up to wipe out the disease, Hui said.

More high-efficiency vaccines should be developed and produced, and priority should be given to the large cities, large poultry farms and their neighboring areas, Hui said.

As animal diseases, such as bird flu, could infect human being, China should work to make and improve laws and regulations on animal diseases control, with a view to establishing an efficient mechanism to deal with such outbreaks, Hui said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government had also developed preferential policies and measures to boost the development of the poultry industry as part of the efforts to minimize losses caused by bird flu, Hui said.

Editor: Wing