Guangzhou launched a taskforce Sunday to fight bird flu and allocated 5 million yuan (US$605,000) to vaccinate birds, disinfect areas near where the virus is found, and compensate breeders.

Quarantine staff have been sent to railway stations, ports, airport, and retail markets to quarantine birds. The markets are disinfected twice a day.

All 170 million birds raised on more than 1,000 farms in Guangzhou have been vaccinated since the agriculture bureau received the State notice before the Spring Festival, said Su Zequn, vice Guangzhou mayor.

Workers on bird farms are being urged to have their temperatures taken daily and be sent immediately to hospital if they show symptoms similar to flu.

Experts also suggested sending quarantine staff to bird farms and using nets to cover bird farms in case flying birds spread the virus.

Meanwhile, several thousand birds were incinerated Sunday in a 4-meter-deep pit in Shuiwei Village, Chao'an County in eastern Guangdong where suspected bird flu cases had been found.

All tame birds were slaughtered within a 3-kilometer radius of where the virus had been found. Lime powder was scattered on roads to disinfect the area.

In Chao'an, bird breeders can receive compensation of up to 100 yuan for a large goose, 25 yuan for a duck and 12 yuan for a chicken.

(Shenzhen Daily February 3, 2004)