Kaiyang increases wildlife controls for virus prevention

Kaiyang county – administered by the Guiyang, capital of China's Southwest Guizhou province – recently strengthened its controls on wildlife, responding to requests made by the Guiyang bureau of natural resources and planning for more novel coronavirus prevention and control measures.

The county's department of natural resources organized for checks to be made and improvements to be introduced of epidemic controls. They said that staff members examined the sanitary and disinfection conditions of 15 wild animal domestication and breeding grounds in the county.

Slaughterhouses for live poultry and restaurants were checked 10 times and five supermarkets were spot-checked during the period. No cases of irregularities involving wildlife sales were found.

Forestry stations, forest administrators of State-owned forest farms and forest rangers mounted daily patrols. Some 378 freight vehicles were checked at the Kaiyang South Exit and the Kaiyang West Exit of the Guiyang-Zunyi Complex Line.

There were health screenings of personnel and also inspections of wildlife took place, to ensure there was no transmission of the virus.

The department also sent 15 notifications to breeding enterprises, demanding them to enhance their monitoring of sources, while sterilizations were performed and intimate contact between humans and wildlife eliminated.

Written notices were issued to locals at supermarkets and at agricultural trade markets, advising them not to hunt wild animals and not to engage in illegal wildlife carriage, transportation and other activities.