Source: CCTV.com

04-02-2007 17:24

Preventing the spread of bird flu needs a change in poultry breeding practices. All human cases of the disease have occurred in developing countries where backyard and small-scale farming dominate the poultry industry. International health experts are now calling for a move to the industrialized practice, where birds are confined indoors.

CCTV reporter Zhu Yan talked to one poultry breeder in a Beijing suburb, which boasts of being Asia's largest. To his surprise, he never came face-to-face with a single chicken during the entire time.

Large poultry farms do not welcome outsiders, especially in winter, which is bird flu season. Even their own trucks must go through three disinfections. Visitors are only allowed to peep in through a monitor.