No chicken at Chinese zoo to prevent bird flu
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-07 14:49

There will be no chicken this winter for lions and tigers and bears in the Guangzhou Zoo.

Zoo officials in the southern Chinese city said the animals will only be fed beef, mutton and rabbit as a precaution against an outbreak of avian influenza, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The new diet, which will last for three months, will hopefully lower the chance of the animals getting sick, especially with so many birds from the north migrating to the warmer southern regions, Xinhua said, citing Chen Honghan, deputy manager of the zoo.

"The inflow of so many birds from other areas adds to the possibility of an epidemic," Chen was quoted as saying.

Bird flu ravaged poultry farms across Asia this year, killing or forcing the culls of tens of millions of chickens and other birds. The disease also killed 32 people in Thailand and Vietnam.

In recent weeks, China has ordered local officials to be on high alert against the disease after Thailand reported possible human-to-human transmission.

Chinese officials said in March that they had defeated the disease after killing 9 million chickens and other poultry. However, a new outbreak was reported in July, when tests showed chickens had died of the disease on a farm in the eastern province of Anhui.

The Guangzhou Zoo has vaccinated 80 percent of its 3,000 birds and has disinfected its bird-raising areas and visitor and entertainment areas, Xinhua said.

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province, where severe acute respiratory syndrome first emerged in 2002. New flu strains are often traced to southern China, where experts say they start in ducks, pigs and other farm animals.

Last month, officials killed 147 tigers at a zoo in eastern Thailand which apparently became sick with bird flu after eating raw infected chickens.

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