China bans poultry from Thailand, Cambodia as bird flu scare widens

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2004

BEIJING (AFP) — China has banned imports of poultry from Thailand and Cambodia, raising its level of alert against the rapidly multiplying threat of bird flu.

The decision by the ministry of agriculture and quarantine authorities, reported by the official Xinhua news agency Sunday, comes two days after both Southeast Asian nations confirmed they had been struck by the deadly H5N1 virus.

The measure, which Xinhua said was taken "to prevent possible inflow of bird flu and safeguard domestic stockbreeding," follows a ban on poultry imports from Vietnam, Japan and South Korea.

The concrete impact of the ban is likely to be limited, given China's relatively small import of Thai poultry.

In 2002, China accounted for 1.6 percent of Thailand's chicken...