China has been dealing this year with a growing epidemic of the highly contagious and potentially fatal bird flu. Although the Chinese authorities seemed to have the situation under control by placing areas under quarantine and by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of birds from contaminated farms and neighboring ones, the danger and the epidemic itself are still very much present in China.

 

Only this month, there have been four reported cases of bird flu, two of which were fatal. According to a flu expert with the Chinese National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, it seems that these new infections were possible because H5N1 strain becomes more active under low temperatures. He also said that due to the current circumstances, they were compelled to implement stronger and more effective prevention and supervision methods.

 

The Chinese Agriculture Ministry is of the opinion that tighter monitoring of the disease outbreaks is necessary, at all levels. An additional measure that seems vital at this point is the proper vaccination of all poultry. The ministry announced that “With the Lunar New Year approaching, the volume of trade of live poultry is growing, and the risk of the emergence and spread of an epidemic is increasing.”

 

The number of people that travel between urban and rural areas during the Lunar New Year reaches a staggering 188 million.