East China's Shandong
Province, one of the major poultry product exporters in the
country, is now making painstaking efforts to prevent bird flu.
The local animal husbandry department has tightened checks in
the whole province and given medical checks on all poultry products
in the market.
All the poultry farms are now under closed-door operation and
all the staff and equipment are being disinfected. In the meantime,
a round-the-clock monitoring system and a daily reporting system
have been adopted.
The province exports 230,000 to 350,000 tons of poultry products
every year, accounting for more than half of the country's total
export volume. So far, there is no bird flu case reported in the
province.
Besides improvement in internal management, the local government
also strengthened quarantine along ports and road crossings to
prevent import of the virus.
To prepare for the worst, the local government has set up a
crisis team made up of experts to ensure swift and decisive
handling of emergency situation.
An official with the local foreign trade and economic
cooperation department said they hope the preventive measures could
help them minimize economic losses from export decrease.
Following China's confirming of its first case of bird flu in
the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, and suspected cases in Hunan
and Hubei
provinces, the Republic of Korea and Japan have banned imports of
poultry products from China.
China itself has suspended export of poultry and related
products by Chinese farmers from bird flu-hit areas.
(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2004)