The lifting of isolation on Dingdang Town in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is based on scientific judgments, a senior agricultural official said Sunday.

"The move is strict, cautious and safe," said Jia Youling, spokesman for bird flu control with the Ministry of Agriculture.

China has worked out strict measures for lifting the isolation imposed on highly pathogenic avian flu epidemic-stricken regions. Bird flu affected areas must meet all the requirements in various aspects before being relieved out of isolation, Jia said.

For instance, all the poultry in the affected areas within a three-km radius must be killed. Compulsory vaccination of fowls must be conducted within a five-km radius. No fowls are allowed to be shipped out of the affected regions.

Dingdang Town was the first area in China which reported H5N1 bird flu. The central and local governments took cautious measures and closed off the region. The Ministry of Agriculture sent a working team there to examine implementation of all control measures before the isolation was lifted.

It usually takes at least 21 days from the outbreak of the epidemic to the lifting of isolation. It is based on the incubation period of a virus set by international organizations on animal health.

The experience drawing from the stamp-out of bird flu in Dingdang Town shows that so long as all the bird flu measures are implemented in a down-to-earth manner, the epidemic will not spread to other regions, Jia said.

However, he stressed, isolation lifting is by no means everything is okay in the region. Some compulsory measures are still in effect. Former poultry farms are allowed to resume operation six months after the isolation lifting.

(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2004)