Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have stressed that the prevention and control work against bird flu should be conducted effectively based on scientific knowledge and in line with the law, following the confirmation of China's first bird flu cases on Tuesday.

They asked local governments to maintain high alert against the deadly virus and strengthen monitoring of the H5N1 strain of bird flu after the cases were confirmed in Long'an County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

If cases of bird flu are spotted, all the infected poultry must be slaughtered and the affected areas must be sanitized to prevent further spread, they stressed.

They said that local governments should keep the virus within the polluted region and prevent it from spreading to humans to ensure the safety of people.

Local governments across the country have made painstaking efforts to carry out these measures in a coordinated manner for the prevention and control of bird flu.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2004)