China Gearing Up for Bird Flu Season

Higher temperatures than normal mean migrant birds will be outstaying their welcome in north and central china.

Higher temperatures than normal mean migrant birds will be outstaying their welcome in north and central China.

The country’s vice agriculture minister Yin Chengjie has called for tougher measures on bird flu prevention, especially in the wake of the new lunar year.

At this time, there is an increase in transportation of livestock and poultry across the country.

In addition, bird flu is predominant during this season.

Yin affirmed that China would reinforce measures such as border control, securing the quality and availability of vaccines and improving its emergency response capability, to combat the situation.

Last year, China vaccinated more than 95 percent of domestic poultry and tracked 6.811 million epidemic samples.

The government has decided to train more village veterinarians and animal epidemic prevention technicians in order to cope with the shortage of epidemic prevention staff in the village and townships.

China has reported just 10 bird flu cases among domestic poultry last year and there has been no epidemics noted as such.

The human cases reported are traceable to direct or indirect contact with infected birds, according to health officials.

Source-Medindia
ANN