China offers rewards for reporting mysterious animal deaths

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http://news./s/afp/20051031/hl_afp/healthfluchina_051031163035

 

China offers rewards for reporting mysterious animal

deaths

 

Mon Oct 31,11:30 AM ET

 

BEIJING (AFP) - China has banned the sale,

transportation, and consumption of animals and birds

that die of unknown illnesses and is offering rewards

for reports of sudden animal or bird deaths as it

battles bird flu.

 

The east China province of Shandong also activated a

daily surveillance of migratory birds out of fear they

would spread the virus.

 

Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds began

arriving from north China, Mongolia, and Russia in

late October and are expected to spend their winter in

or pass through the coastal province on their way to

warmer Pacific islands.

 

Amid fears of a pandemic, the Ministry of Agriculture

ordered agriculture and veterinary authorities

nationwide immediately to report deaths of animals or

birds.

 

" Rewards should be given to those people who have

reported illnesses, " said a notice on the ministry's

website on Monday. It did not specify what sort of

reward would be offered.

 

The directive bans the sale, transportation,

processing and consumption of animals or birds that

have died of unknown illnesses and requires them to be

buried, burned or disposed of by chemical processing.

 

Cities across China have stepped up measures to combat

bird flu after recent outbreaks in the Inner Mongolia

region and the provinces of Hunan and Anhui, which

killed thousands of chickens, ducks and geese.

 

The State Forestry Administration had ordered

localities to set up 118 monitoring stations

nationwide to monitor migratory birds as the migration

season arrives.

 

More than 400 similar monitoring stations have also

been established by local governments across China,

the Xinhua news agency said.

 

In May some 6,000 wild geese were killed during a bird

flu outbreak in a migratory bird habitat in Qinghai

Lake of northwestern China's Qinghai province.

 

In the province of Shandong, the migration season

lasts till March.

 

" Specialists in four stations were asked to record the

information on migrant birds every day, information

concerning bird species, their activities, and their

droppings, " said Huang Shiquan, an official with the

wildlife protection bureau of Shandong's forestry

department.

 

Sick or dead birds, if found, should immediately be

tested for bird flu, he said.

 

The forestry administration said Monday it had

received no report of avian flu among migratory birds

since June, according to Xinhua.

 

" All the local forestry authorities have banned

people, livestock and poultry from entering the areas

where migratory birds gather, in a bid to avoid mutual

contagion of possible avian flu ..., " said Zhuo

Rongsheng, director of the administration's wildlife

protection department.

 

The southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong

Kong, has closed bird-watching towers in nature

reserves and warned visitors not to touch or buy wild

birds, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

 

The agriculture ministry on Friday insisted that no

human cases of bird flu had been documented in China,

although the death of a 12-year-old girl this month in

Hunan after she ate a sick chicken aroused concern.

 

Chinese health officials said she died of pneumonia.

The World Health Organization has said it needs more

information about the death.

 

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Asia since

late 2003.