Shanghai is quite safe from bird flu now as the city government is taking strict all-around preventive measures, officials assured people at a news briefing yesterday.

The city has revised its preventive scheme for outbreaks and emergencies, making it more practical.

Only the Ministry of Agriculture has the right to confirm occurrence of a bird flu.

If bird flu does occur, the area within three kilometers of the epidemic spot should be blocked off, according to the scheme.

The plan calls for the city to always store 2 million milliliters of vaccine, 50,000 exposure suits and five tons of disinfectant solution.

At the press briefing, officials said the number of poultry raised in the city has been reduced to 80 million now, down 45 percent from 2003, because raising livestock and poultry in high-density can contribute to epidemic diseases.

The poultry density is expected to continue to drop to a more reasonable level of 70 million and that of pigs bred in the city should decrease to 2.5 million.

The numbers are calculated based on the amount of excrement of livestock and poultry that exists on every unit of land in the city, said Shi Xingzhong, spokesman of the Shanghai Agricultural Commission.

Besides, more than 800 farms have been closed, either because they were located in prohibited areas, like that inside the Outer Ring Road, the water resource conservation area and urban areas, or because the farms didn't meet animal hygiene standards.

Now the city has 971 large farms and about 30,000 small farms. In the existing farms, all the poultry began to receive mandatory vaccinations last year. Nearly 100 million domestic fowl have been vaccinated and 82 million milliliters of vaccine have been injected since last year.

"The farm operators are also required to stop other people, poultry and vehicles from entering the farms and to sterilize the farms regularly in order to prevent epidemic diseases," said Zhang Suhua, director of the Shanghai Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Station.

"It is banned to mix water fowls with fowls on the land together or poultry with livestock because it is easier to spread viruses among them."

In addition to local farms, the government is also tightening checks on poultry from other cities and provinces because more than half of the poultry on the local market comes from outside the city.

Since February 1, 2002, the city has set up animal quarantine and inspection stations at eight entrances through which vehicles carrying animal and animal products are required to pass. Staff will carry out inspections around the clock.

(Shanghai Daily October 28, 2005)