BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Due to non-human bird flu outbreaks in Anhui, Hunan, Liaoning provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Beijing on Monday closed all market trade of live poultry and ruled out poultry breeding in its urban areas.

    The move, which stopped poultry products from entering the national capital, signals the country's reinforced alertness against the epidemic.

    Based on the bird flu prevention and control mechanism, Beijing also suspended flying pet birds, and temporarily closed down all bird markets.

    The Chinese government has set aside 2 billion yuan (250 million US dollars) from its annual budget for nationwide bird flu control and prevention, according to a State Council meeting held earlier this month.

    The meeting urged local governments at various levels to establish an emergency epidemic prevention and reporting mechanism of alert of bird flu outbreaks.

    The State Administration for Industry and Commerce specified that in a first grade bird flu alarm, the administration's local branches should immediately cull poultry in the bird flu-hit region, close down poultry markets located within a 10 square kilometers area, and report human infection cases within six hours after the breakout.

    "Three of the world's eight bird migrating routes pass through China, which makes the country highly vulnerable to the latest outbreaks of H5N1 strain bird flu," said He Xintian, an official from the National Bureau of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary when he inspected the Saihan District of Hohhot, one of China's eight bird flu-hit regions this year.

    Tengjiaying Village in Saihan was relieved from epidemic isolation on Sunday, after no new cases or infections of humans were reported for 21 consecutive days.

    A ceremony was held here on Sunday to mark the lifting of the isolation. Villagers lighted firecrackers and went out to do farm work again.

    Qin Zhijun, owner of the largest poultry farm in the village, lost his flock of 7,000 poultry during the epidemic quarantine. His breeding yard is still blanketed in calcium oxide powder, and 30 bird houses in his poultry farm are empty.

    Pang Liankui, a 68-year-old man in the village, said that he has never seen such an epidemic disaster before.

    "Chickens and eggs were disposed of by quarantine staff. The village was disinfected twice a day, and there was not a person catching cold recently," he said after having been relieved from a 22-day quarantine check.

    The State Bird Flu Reference Lab confirmed that the chickens died of H5N1 bird flu in Tengjiaying on Oct. 19. All poultry were killed and disinfected in the bird flu-hit areas and poultry in nearby regions were all vaccinated. The areas within a three kilometers radius around the village were also closed to prevent the spread of the infectious disease.

    The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Headquarters for Prevention and Treatment of Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu said on Sunday that the poultry husbandry business can be only resumed in the area in six months.

    No sighs of relief were heard after the case was settled in Inner Mongolia. Six million poultry were culled in the latest bird flu outbreak detected in Heishan County in northeast China's Liaoning Province on Sunday.

    The culling lasted from Saturday evening to Sunday noon, with all poultry slaughtered within a radius of three kilometers from the epidemic site.

    The Liaoning Provincial Government has appropriated 83.5 million yuan (10 million US dollars) of emergency disaster relief funds to the county, while the county government of Heishan has also given out 9.6 million yuan (1.2 million US dollars) to compensate for the losses of poultry farmers in the region.

    So far, an 11-member expert group led by Niu Dun, vice minister of Agriculture, was in Heishan to direct the quarantine. They attributed the cause of the epidemic breakout to migratory birds. Dozens of wild birds were found dead at a local natural habitat, which is located on the bird migrating route linking to Australia.   Enditem