Is bird flu coming to the Chinese live poultry market?

According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, as of 16:00 on April 21, a total of 102 cases of H7N9 bird flu were reported in China, 20 were dead, 12 were recovered, and the remaining 70 were receiving treatment at designated medical units. At the same time, Feng Zijian, director of the Emergency Management Office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, made it clear that the spectrum of H7N9 infection in humans is not yet clear, but there is increasing evidence that exposure to live birds is a risk factor for the infection of this new virus. Poultry and its excreta and secretions carrying the virus may be the source of human infection with the H7N9 bird flu virus.

The chain reaction that took place was that prevention and control emergency plans were successively launched across the country, and live poultry became the main monitoring object. They all called for the stop of live poultry transactions. From April 3, Guizhou began to collect livelihoods in highly polluted places such as farmers' markets. Poultry environmental specimens; on April 6th, Shanghai suspended live bird trades throughout the city. And Beijing closed its live poultry trading market as early as 7 years ago.

However, another phenomenon is also worthy of attention. Following Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, where the H7N9 epidemic was more concentrated, Beijing has also issued the "Notice on Promoting Stable Development of the Poultry Industry in the City," except for the decision to prevent and control H7N9 in Beijing. In addition to financial subsidies for affected poultry industries in the bird flu, four supporting policies have been introduced to protect the effective supply and price stability of the poultry product market and protect the interests of the farm operators.

On the one hand, there are various ban policies in the live-bird trade market. On the one hand, there is a policy of bailout for the poultry-breeding industry, and there are various disputes over the ban and ban on live poultry slaughter. The existence and waste of the live poultry market in China seems to have taken a fork.

Experts: Changing Habits is the Root Cause “So far, in some remote areas (especially mountainous regions), economically lagging places, and a dead end in an economically developed city, the live poultry business market is left unattended or almost unsupervised. Live birds from all directions are sold in the bazaars, and the trading people are randomly selected to purchase them and transport them away in a variety of modes of transport.” Zhong Minling, who works at the local animal supervision office, said that according to his understanding, On an open road on the outskirts of a major city’s suburban roads, starting at 18:00 every day, there are hawkers carrying motorcycles or bicycles on board, carrying all kinds of live birds in this concentrated transaction, and buyers are also on time. After the hours of trading hours have passed, chickens and ducks will be seen on the open air. Chickens and ducks will fly everywhere but nobody will pass through.

According to Zhong Minling, at present, there are problems in the live poultry market in China such as imperfect prevention facilities, lagging quarantine measures, and lack of management systems. “The cleaning and disinfection of live poultry business premises, slaughterhouses, and live poultry cages and slaughtering appliances cannot be carried out regularly. The tools for carrying live birds have not been cleaned or disinfected before they enter and leave the market, especially in farmers’ markets in cities and townships. The epidemic prevention and control will be conducive to the epidemic, and even the spread of the epidemic may be caused." Zhong Minling said that, in addition, there are no harmless treatment facilities in the farmers' markets in cities and townships, and poultry that are dead or unaccounted for cannot be harmlessly treated. Casually abandoned, even illegal business operators to sell it occurred.

"From an epidemiological point of view, the prohibition of live-bird trade is conducive to disease prevention, especially in large cities with high population density such as Beijing and Shanghai." Jiang Qingwu, dean of the School of Public Health at Fudan University, said that although people are currently The route of infection of the H7N9 bird flu virus is not yet clear, but most experts believe that the live poultry market is rated as a potential hazard.

He believes that attention should be paid to sewage treatment, live bird transportation, and slaughter of environmental seals in live poultry transactions. No matter whether in terms of supervision or cost, the investment will not be small. “So, considering the cost alone, the prohibition of live bird trade It is also a good solution to reduce the risk."

Zhong Minling suggested that at the current stage, the conditions for the opening of the live poultry market should be strictly regulated and the operating behavior of live poultry should be regulated. We also strengthened the hygiene management of the live poultry business market, implemented a regular off-market system, “regulated live poultry killing behavior in the market, and gradually implemented the live poultry slaughter system. All levels of departments must strictly regulate the live poultry slaughter behavior of the existing live poultry business market. The unit must establish and improve a live poultry slaughter and management system, equipped with facilities and equipment such as disinfection, ventilation, and harmless disposal suitable for the scale of slaughter, live poultry slaughtered area layout, facilities and other conditions must meet the requirements of animal epidemic prevention hygiene and other relevant requirements. Poultry slaughter and sale separation system: that is, the slaughter area and the sales area must be separated by a certain distance, and must be separated by a barrier; the personnel engaged in the slaughter of live poultry must meet the requirements of the health department, obtain health certificates and take necessary protective measures; The poultry salespersons and the slaughterers must wear clear signs of distinction and must not cross each other."

"At the same time, it actively promotes the consumption of chilled poultry and guides consumers in changing their consumption habits of slaughter and killing of live birds, and establishes a healthier, scientific, and civilized consumption concept," said Zhongmin Ling.

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