China lifts quarantine in Inner Mongolia
October 25th, 2006
The quarantine previously imposed in an area from the province of Inner Mongolia has been lifted, as announced by Chinese authorities. The measure had been imposed as a result of a bird flu outbreak that affected the region last month, but now a ceremony was organized to mark the end of the quarantine in Jiuyuan District. The last bird was culled 21 days ago and experts that have been monitoring the area say that no other outbreak of the disease has been observed ever since. The sudden death of nearly 1,000 poultry alerted the authorities on September 27 and testing later confirmed that the birds had been infected with the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus. Over 42 million birds have been vaccinated against avian influenza in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.