Recently, authorities in Beijing confiscated 182 wild birds from traders and initiated disinfection procedures three times a day at the largest wholesale poultry market in the capital of China. They have also mandated that all vendors in the market undergo testing for avian influenza.
Meanwhile, to prevent the spread of avian influenza, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has distributed flyers in various languages, including Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Nepali, Hindi, and Urdu throughout the area. Hong Kong has also announced plans to conduct a large-scale emergency response drill for avian influenza in the near future. Local authorities have begun culling some of the hundreds of crows congregating in the Sham Shui Po area.
Avian influenza continues to spread in the Omsk Oblast (West Siberia) and Tambov Oblast (500 km southeast of Moscow) regions of Russia. Another area under suspicion is Kurgan Oblast. In Thailand, authorities recently reported two additional suspected cases in the north: an 18-year-old from Chiang Rai who had contact with dead chickens and a 49-year-old man who raised over 100 ducks and showed signs of illness after consuming dead poultry.
THUY TUNG (According to AP, Reuters, DPI, THX)