Hebei province has put the 1.7 million chickens and ducks on or around Baiyangdian Lake under close observation to keep any instance of the H7N9 virus away from local people. Migratory birds resting in the vast wetland will be watched closely by a group of surveyors at six spots who were trained to keep records on the migratory birds and their movements every day. The 1.1 million ducks and 600,000 chickens kept there have been immunized and have been put in cages to keep them away from local people. Any outbreak of an unusual disease will be reported immediately and professionals will deal with the dead birds carefully, with no local people being allowed to touch them. The wetland surveyors had reported no unusual cases of deaths of migratory geese, ducks, and other birds as of Monday.
Baiyangdian Lake lies along a major migratory bird route, and was listed as a major monitoring area after the outbreak of H7N9 flu in southern China. There are 198 kinds of wild birds resting in the wetland every year thanks to the climate and environment, and the local chickens and ducks. |
