Shanghai, Feb 02: China's densely populated financial hub of Shanghai has halted trade of live poultry in a bid to stop the spread of deadly bird flu that has already hit eight provinces, the city government said today. Ten out of 33 regions in the world's most populous nation have confirmed or suspected outbreaks of the avian influenza that has spread to 10 Asian countries and killed at least 10 people in Vietnam and Thailand.
''Shanghai has halted the trading and killing of live poultry at wholesale markets,'' the Shanghai government said on its web site, www.shanghai.gov.cn.
''The Animal Epidemic Prevention Centre will also provide free inoculation of poultry around the city,'' the city said.
China has yet to report any human cases of the flu.
Shanghai had already begun culling hundreds of thousands of chickens, ducks and other fowl in the city's southern Nanhui district after poultry at a private farm was suspected to have been infected with bird flu.
Chinese authorities have been culling poultry within three km of infected farms, vaccinating birds within five km and has established a national command headquarters to battle the disease.
China is also fighting to keep another deadly virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), from resurfacing.
A Chinese doctor in the southern province of Guangdong was confirmed last week as China's fourth SARS case since a global epidemic was declared over last July. Bureau Report