Local officials have taken emergency measures to prevent possible spread of the bird flu in Shanghai after a suspected case was reported in Nanhui District on Friday.

The city has slaughtered 300,000 birds in a three kilometer radius of the suspected case and sanitized the area.

The district government has also blocked all major intersections in the involved area to ensure that no poultry is transported out.

Officials are also quarantining all birds within five kilometers of the farm where the suspected case was discovered and giving checks up to anyone who handles birds in the area.

"Now we have started a second round of carpet inspection to make sure not a single bird is neglected," said Tang Haidong, deputy director of Nanhui. "So far no infections in human beings have been found and the situation is under control."

The municipal government issued a decree last night, banning the wholesaling and retailing of live poultry at local markets. Officials at the markets are urged to enforce a strict quarantine system to ensure only those poultry products with a quarantine certificate are sold in the city.

Owners of poultry farms must report to local authorities the type and number of their birds and accept the mandatory quarantine by relevant government departments. Any farm which fails to meet the quarantine requirement must be shut down, the decree said.

It also urged local medical authorities to beef up the monitoring system of the bird flu virus. People who have close contact with poultry and show some flu symptoms should immediately seek medical treatment at local hospitals.

On Friday afternoon, more than 200 ducks were reported dead on a private farm in Yiyuan Village of Kangqiao Township. The Shanghai Institute of Veterinary Hygienic Supervision judged it a case of suspected bird flu after testing blood samples and dissecting the dead ducks.

Officials have blamed the farm's owner, Xu Shengwei, for not having the ducks vaccinated as the government had required.

His farm is in the middle of six ranches that are home to 35,000 ducks.

"At first a few ducks appeared unanimated and twitched on Tuesday and I injected antibiotics into them. But it didn't take effect and a large number died on Friday," said Xu, who raised 8,000 ducks. "I have raised ducks for more than 10 years but have never seen such a serious bird epidemic. I have no idea how the epidemic happened."

"Though the bird flu is spreading in some Asian countries, I never thought it will happen on me. So I just considered vaccinating the ducks a few days ago, but it's too late," he added.

So far, more than 14 million milliliters of vaccine have been used in the city, with vets injecting 0.5 milliliters into chicken and 1 milliliter into each duck. The government will shoulder the fees for the mandatory immunity.

"We will make sure enough vaccine is provided," said an official with the Shanghai Husbandry Veterinary Station.

The shanghai Zoo has taken chickens off the menu for many of its large animals, such as tigers and lions, offering beef and mutton instead.

(eastday.com February 2, 2004)