Bird flu quarantine lifted

China lifted a bird flu quarantine in southwestern Guizhou province yesterday after no new cases were reported in the past 21 days.

No new outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus strain have been recorded in the past three weeks after at least 240,000 poultry were slaughtered following an outbreak on Feb 17 in Zheng'an county, Zunyi city in Guizhou, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

The ministry has urged local authorities to beef up supervision and prevention measures and raise people's awareness to prevent new outbreaks.