Tang Bowen, magistrate of Long 'an County in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, announced Sunday morning the ending of isolation imposed on the county's Dingdang Town, which had been stricken by the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu late last month.

It is the first bird flu-affected area in China relieved out of isolation. The move was based on the official prescription on lifting isolation imposed on highly pathogenic avian flu-afflicted areas after thorough examinations from Chinese agricultural experts.

Since the bird flu broke out on Jan 23, governments at all levels took resolute control measures, paving way for the day to lift the isolation, said, Bi Qiang, a regional government official in charge of bird flu control.

It had been confirmed that ducks dying in a farm in Dingdang Town, Long'an County, were caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus. The local governments slaughtered 14,000 poultry within a three km radius of the duck farm, and vaccinated all poultry within five km of the duck farm.

The area had been closed off in accordance with China's Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention. 

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture received a report from Guangxi that no new bird flu cases had been discovered or confirmed for a succession of over 21 days since the last poultry in the affected area of the town was slaughtered as stipulated. An outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was reported on Jan 23.

"We are told that emergent quarantine measures such as isolation, culling of poultry confirmed of bird flu, disinfection of poultry farms, as well as inoculation of poultry being threatened by bird flu were carried out around Dingdang Town, and the local quarantine officers of Guangxi supervised the quarantine efforts at the area," said the spokesman.

Experts who were sent to assess the result of the bird flu control efforts concluded that the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu found in Dingdang Town had been uprooted and the area met the requirements for being lifting out of isolation as stipulated in the Emergent Countermeasures Against Bird Flu of China and Technical Standards Regarding Fight Against Bird Flu.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Agriculture urged local organizations for supervision over animal quarantine to tighten the monitoring of bird flu in Dingdang and to prevent the occurrence of new bird flu cases.

(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2004)