Huang Shengde, owner of the duck farm which has been confirmed to be hit by bird flu in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is now under around-clock medical monitoring.

The national bird flu reference laboratory confirmed Tuesday that the death of ducks in Huang's duck farm was caused by the bird flu virus, but no infections in human beings have been found.

Following reports of ducks died on the duck farm in Dingdang Town, Long'an County last Friday, local government sent the samples to the lab. After testing, the lab confirmed that the deaths were caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. 

The deadly virus -- highly contagious among chickens -- is believed to spread to humans through contact with infected birds.

At the road crossing in the Dingdang town, policemen are on duty for possible emergency. But life is getting on normally as trucks full of sugar cane are rushing to and fro between sugar farm and sugar refinery mill. It's now harvest time for sugar cane, a major farm product in the county.

"We have been told to hand in all the poultry we fed at home in the past two days. We have already done it," said Lu Chaoqian, a resident in the town. Lu said that government officials have also sent disinfections from door to door and asked people not to cultivate poultry in the next 30 years.

So far, the local government slaughtered 14,000 heads of poultry within a three kilometer radius of the duck farm, and vaccinated all poultry outside three kilometers and within five kilometers of the duck farm.

Since the beginning of January, government departments at all levels have been maintaining high alert on bird flu outbreak in other Asian countries. The State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Ministry of Agriculture has issued joint notices to ban poultry imports from affected countries and regions.

Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health have informed the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) of the cases, and said exchange and cooperation in bird flu prevention and control was welcome.

The Ministry of Agriculture will make all efforts to monitor the situation and prevent further spread of the disease in the next step and make appropriate arrangements for prevention work in other areas, said an ministry official.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2004)