Around 3,500 live chickens were transported from the Chinese mainland to Macao on Friday morning, the first time since bird flu hit the nation.

All are from three registered poultry farms in Zhuhai in South China's Guangdong Province. The chicken have been isolated for quarantine for five days before they were sent to Macao. Some of them even received blood tests to prove their clean bill of health.

According to China Central Television, no actual or suspected cases of bird flu have occurred in all of Zhuhai's 35 poultry farms.

Zhu Shaozhi, a senior official with the local quarantine administration, said live poultry exports to Macao will be formally resumed 15 days later from Guangdong Province.

Two areas in Guangdong Province -- the Jiangcheng district of Yangjiang City and the city of Shaoguan, together with other two areas in Hunan and Shaanxi provinces had their quarantines lifted Friday.

No new avian influenza cases had been detected in these areas for 21 consecutive days since the last infected birds were destroyed, according to a Ministry of Agriculture spokesman.

Animal epidemic experts and officials concluded after inspections that the disease had been eradicated in these areas and they met the requirements for the lifting of isolation orders.

By Friday, 42 of the 49 epidemic areas have been freed from restrictions and no new cases had been reported, according to the ministry.

And no suspected or confirmed human bird flu infection cases were reported on the Chinese mainland by 10 am on Friday, said the Ministry of Health.

Local healthcare agencies, especially those in the bird flu-hit regions, have enhanced disease surveillance after the outbreak of avian influenza on parts of Chinese mainland, said the ministry.

Those agencies conducted medical examinations of sample flu patients and pneumonia patients with unclear cause and people who had close contact with them, it said.

All close contacts have been released from medical observation and no unusual situation was found, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The ministry also urged healthcare agencies at all levels to further strengthen cooperation in sharing information with agricultural departments, monitoring the situation and contributing to the control of bird flu.

It warned all the public healthcare departments to conduct strict surveillance and management to block the possible bird-to-human transmission of such virus.

In Thailand, a 16-month-old boy was suspected to have caught bird flu, Xinhua reported on Friday.

A bird flu virus called H5N1 was found in the boy's body. He was infected as he played with his neighbor’s chicken in February, the report said.

(China Daily March 6, 2004)