No outbreaks of bird flu among poultry have been reported in China for 127 straight days since Sept. 20 last year, said Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai in Beijing on Sunday.

The record should be ascribed to the efforts the government and agricultural departments had made to prevent epidemics among animals, Sun said.

China used 10.6 million avian flu vaccines and 1.43 billion mouth-and-foot disease vaccines to immunize poultry and domestic animals last year. The vaccinated poultry and domestic animals accounted for more than 95 percent of the total numbers in the country, according to Sun.

Veterinary departments also intensified monitoring, Sun said. Last year,they tested 6.77 million bird flu and 1.21 million mouth-and-foot samples.

Monitoring was also stressed in border areas to prevent the transfer of bird flu into China from neighboring countries and regions.

The government promoted the use of its first vaccine product, avian influenza inactivated vaccine (H5N2 subtype), in 2004 when the highly pathogenic virus broke out.

Based on the first vaccine proved effective in containing the bird flu epidemic, scientists at the National Laboratory, using a technique called reverse genetics, altered the genome sequence of the virus and have created three other vaccines since 2004.

Another three new vaccines -- the H5N1 mark inactivated vaccine, Codon optimized H5 avian influenza Ha gene DNA vaccine, and Recombinant influenza Ha subunit vaccine -- were developed by the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory last year.

Influenza vaccines were helpful to curbing the outbreak of bird flu, Sun said.

China has conducted international cooperation in the prevention of bird flu, suggested the establishment of an international cooperation mechanism against bird flu and shared information and influenza virus resources with other countries, Sun said.

Sun said China has provided technological and materials assistance to neighboring countries including Vietnam, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Mongolia to help those countries prevent bird flu.

Sun warned there was still the possibility of outbreak of bird flu in some parts of China given the influenza situation both in and outside the country.

Sun said winter and spring were the peak times for bird flu, and six countries and regions around China had reported outbreaks recently.

Sun called on departments concerned to enhance vaccination of poultry and domestic animals and monitoring on bird flu situation.

China reported 10 outbreaks of bird flu last year, 68 percent less than the previous year.

About 47,000 poultry birds died in the outbreaks in seven provinces on the Chinese mainland, with another 2.94 million fowls culled, according to figures published by the Ministry of Agriculture last November.

The virus has infected 22 Chinese since 2003 and killed 14. The latest human case was a 37-year-old farmer in east China's Anhui Province, who had recovered before his case was reported on Jan. 10.

Fifty-four countries and regions in Asia, Europe and Africa reported outbreaks of bird flu last year.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2007)