The quarantine of a village in central China's Hunan province has been lifted after all signs of the bird flu there have been eradicated.

Veterinary staff and villagers celebrated the end of the 26-day quarantine by burning their protective suits and warning banners that had been used to cordoned off the area.

The area's live poultry market will soon reopen but farmers will not be allowed to raise poultry for six months. Veterinarians will continue to monitor the village, said Feng Dewen, the chief veterinary official in Xiangtan county. A bird flu outbreak was reported in Wantang Village, Shebu Town, Xiangtan County on October 18th. Fowl within a three kilometer radius were culled and the live poultry market was shut down the following day. Since then some 253,000 birds were vaccinated.

The outbreak was confirmed by the national avian influenza laboratory on Oct. 25.

A panel of seven experts from the provincial veterinary and disease control departments visited Shebu on Saturday and recommended that the quarantine could be lifted.

The panel, headed by the provincial senior veterinarians Ding Guohua and Tan Zhixiang, reported that it had been more than 14 days since the poultry were vaccinated which is how long it takes to become effective. Blood samples from 120 birds in the area show they have been satisfactorily immunized.

The report also said that there have been no new bird flu cases reported in the last 21 days, which is the longest incubation period for the H5N1 avian flu virus. These results convinced the Ministry of Agriculture to lift quarantine.

Despite the victory in Hunan, the province remains on high alert for any further outbreak of the bird influenza. Ou Daiming, deputy director of the Hunan provincial department of agriculture said they must remain on high alert during this time of year when wild birds migrate. "We cannot relax after the lifting of this quarantine," he said.

Source: Xinhua