(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-11-17 16:21

China Development Bank (CDB) Xinjiang Branch announced Thursday that it had provided Urumqi, one of the two counties reported with bird flu case in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China, with 5 million yuan (616,500 US dollars) in emergency loan to combat the avian pandemic there.

Hao Gang, deputy head of the office with the CDB Xinjiang Branch, said they were also discussing details of providing emergency loans to Zepu County, the other county in Xinjiang also spotted with bird flu case, with representatives of the relevant county departments.

By August, CDB has granted 260 million yuan of short-term emergency loans across China since the latter half of 2003, when it began granting loan support to meet a urgent demand cropping up in infrastructure, basic industries, backbone industries and its supportive projects following various kinds of emergencies.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) Tuesday disclosed that China's National Avian Flu Reference Laboratory had found the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the dead fowls sent from some family farms in Zepu and Urumqi counties, both in southern Xinjiang.

In the two counties hit by the bird flu pandemic, 322,500 domestic fowls within a radius of three km have been culled, and poultry and products markets within 10 kms have been closed, said the ministry.