About 53 percent of respondents in a recent poll in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, support centralized slaughter of chickens and a ban on the live chicken trade in wet markets, while 31 percent opposed such a move.

The Guangzhou Public Opinion Research Center interviewed 1,000 residents in the city earlier this month, as the city government prepares to trial centralized chicken slaughtering.

About 75 percent of those polled believed a ban on the live chicken trade in wet markets would improve hygiene in such markets, and 53 percent considered centralized chicken slaughtering would help prevent human infections of bird flu.

However, 66 percent of respondents were concerned that the quality and taste of chicken would become worse if it was not slaughtered live at wet markets.