China's environmental watchdog demanded Tuesday that the
country's breeding industry clean the environment of farms,
slaughterhouses and marketplaces to help stall the spread of bird
flu.
An official document published by the State Environmental
Protection Administration (SEPA) requires farmers to provide clean
drinking water for the poultry, disinfect the air and decontaminate
the feces and sewage of poultry on farms, slaughterhouses and
marketplaces.
Attached to the feces particles floating in the air or the
water, the bird flu virus can cause mass infections and deaths
among birds. Through infected birds, the virus may also find its
way to humans, who could die after infection.
The document thus forbade building breeding farms near drinking
water sources, but it allows them to be built around human
settlements, as long as they are downwind and at least 500 meters
away.
The bird flu plague has struck more than ten Asian countries
since December of 2003, causing tens of millions of poultry to be
slaughtered and 12 human deaths, with almost one hundred people
suspected of infection.
According to a Chinese Health Ministry spokesman Tuesday, no
human infection case has been discovered so far in this
country.?
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2004)