A bird flu quarantine imposed for a part of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region hit by an outbreak last month has been lifted, local authorities said on Wednesday.

A ceremony yesterday morning marked lifting the quarantine in Jiuyuan District of Baotou City.

Experts with the regional headquarters for the prevention of major animal-related epidemics said no new bird flu outbreak had been reported since the last poultry culling 21 days ago.

Reports said 1,000 chickens and ducks died suddenly on a poultry farm in Xincheng Village of Jiuyuan District in Baotou City on September 27. The national avian influenza laboratory later confirmed that H5N1 virus was found in samples of the dead poultry. About 30,000 fowl within three kilometers of the farm were subsequently slaughtered. No human infections were found.

A total of 42.6 million domestic fowl in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have received compulsory inoculations.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2006)