China's Guangdong province bans live poultry sales

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  Andrea Gantz

  Live poultry sales in China's Guangdong province have been banned, although live sales will be allowed for the Lunar New Year.

  From WATTAgNet:
  Authorities in the Chinese province of Guangdong have banned the sale of live poultry for one month due to an increased number of H7N9 avian influenza infections in humans.
  The ban of live poultry sales was issued after 50 H7N9 cases were found in 15 of the province’s major cities. To date, 36 percent of the samples collected from live poultry markets and wholesale stores in Guangdong have tested positive for the H7N9 strain.
  While the ban of live poultry sales will be suspended in Guangdong for a month, the sales will be permitted on February 19 for the celebration of the Lunar New Year, which is viewed as the most important festival on the Chinese calendar.
  "There is no feast without chicken. It is a must for locals to eat freshly slaughtered chicken during the Lunar New Year, for good luck and taste alike," Zhang Lihong, a housewife, told the newspaper.
  However, authorities are concerned that according to tradition, the Chinese travel to their birthplaces carrying the birds on trains and buses which will be overcrowded during the holiday period.
  In 2014, 111 human cases of this virus strain were registered in China, of which at least 20 were fatal, but it was unconfirmed whether the victims were exposed to live birds that were carriers of the virus or a rare infection that could have occurred among humans.