The quarantine of the bird flu-hit spots, one poultry farm and one village in Jingshan County of Hubei Province, has been lifted after all signs of the epidemic there were eradicated, the local government announced Wednesday.

Tests on blood samples of domestic birds within 10 kilometers outside the poultry farm and Qibaoshan village, which reported the bird flu outbreak on Nov. 2, show the poultry have been satisfactorily immunized, said sources with the provincial animal husbandry authorities.

No new bird flu cases were reported in the last 21 days in the area, which is the longest incubation period for the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Nine live poultry markets were allowed to reopen after the 28-day quarantine.

Although the quarantine was lifted, veterinarians will continue to monitor the areas, said an official with the provincial agricultural department.

More than 30,000 birds had been culled within a three-kilometer radius of the spots and the local live poultry markets shut down after the national bird flu lab diagnosed the cases of the H5N1 bird flu on Nov. 11.

Source: Xinhua