Shenzhen city government departments have set up an early warning system for bird flu even though there have been no reports of infections in humans or animals in Shenzhen.

    Liang Junqian, vice director general of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery said this to Shenzhen Daily on Monday.

    “Winter and spring are the seasons in which an epidemic of bird flu can easily break out, and we have noticed that infections have been reported in Thailand and Vietnam,” Liang said.

    More than 80 percent of birds bred in the city’s 232 poultry farms are supplied to Hong Kong while the majority of chickens consumed by city residents were imported from Guangdong cities such as Zhanjiang and neighboring provinces such as Hunan and Jiangxi.

    “The task of preventing an epidemic of bird flu is becoming increasingly serious and, once an infected case is reported, we will take immediate steps to curb the outbreak,” Liang said.

    He said the city government had been instituting strong measures to prevent an epidemic of bird flu since the Ministry of Agriculture lifted the quarantine on Shenzhen Safari Park in March after it was confirmed that the H5N1 deadly strain of bird flu, which caused the death of black swans in the park in February, had been eradicated.

    “Since then, the city has stepped up vaccinations, inspections and quarantine on all poultry farms, poultry wholesalers and retail markets and Shenzhen Safari Park through monitoring in 19 stations throughout the city,” Liang said.

    Zhang Shunxiang, vice director of the city’s center for disease control and prevention, said that a meeting on the citywide prevention of bird flu would be held Nov. 3.

    Guangzhou has also initiated an early warning system for bird flu although no infected birds or humans have been reported there. Hong Kong has embarked on a public awareness campaign and stocked up on vaccine to head off the potential for an outbreak of bird flu.