Beijing steps up the action by disinfecting poultry market

According to authorities in Beijing they have confiscated 182 wild birds from traders and started disinfecting the city's largest live poultry wholesale market against avian flu.

In a report in the the Beijing News a local official says the trading of wild birds will not be permitted while the avian flu is active.

The report also said the city's largest wholesale market for live poultry was disinfected three times daily and workers were being tested for the virus.

Following three outbreaks of the deadly bird flu virus in the country in the past month, the public is wary of buying poultry and as a result markets are suffering.

To date the outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, which scientists fear could mutate into a form that can pass easily between humans and lead to a global pandemic, has already killed 3,800 chickens, ducks and geese in China in the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Anhui and Hunan.

Most human bird flu infections are due to handling sick birds or through contact with their droppings. Eating cooked meat is not a known source of infection.

There have been no reported human bird flu infections in China since the latest H5N1 outbreak surfaced in Asia in 2003.