China issues alert against bird flu from South Korea

BEIJING: China on Wednesday issued an alert against the spread of bird flu from neighbouring South Korea and asked four provinces to step up vigilance against the deadly disease.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has asked the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to take measures to ward off the bird flu epidemic from South Korea.

China had said on Tuesday that it will restrict the number of live poultry markets and will gradually move them away from urban areas in large and medium-size cities to combat bird flu.

The State Council, the Chinese cabinet, asked local governments to ban the construction of new live poultry markets in the country's urban areas.

About 47,000 poultry birds were culled in ten outbreaks of bird flu in seven provinces on the Chinese mainland this year.

Thirteen people in China have been infected with the bird flu this year. There were seven last year. China has reported at least 14 deaths from bird flu.