China plans to set up at least 300 monitoring stations at state level across the country to prevent a possible epidemic in wildlife, including bird flu from migratory birds, a senior forestry official has said.

"We have, so far, set up 150 of such stations across China along with 402 local ones at provincial level," Zhao Xuemin, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration (SFA), was quoted as saying by Friday's China Daily.

However, these stations are far from adequate for China to cope with an epidemic that may possibly strike its wildlife in the future, Zhao told a conference on this issue on Thursday.

To form a long-term monitoring mechanism, China needs at least 300 state-level monitoring stations, Zhao said.

SFA has urged local forestry authorities to keep close watch on the epidemic situation in areas where migratory birds are going to live during the winter, as bird flu is still haunting the country.

Migratory birds have arrived at such areas in central and south China regions for the winter, the China Daily said, citing the latest survey by SFA.

Intensified patrol will be carried out there to look for any abnormal changes among migratory birds, according to Zhao.

So far, China has reported approximately 30 outbreaks of bird flu in 11 provinces and autonomous regions and reported three confirmed human cases of bird flu, the Health Ministry said.

Source: China Daily