No new licenses for wild animal trade will be issued in Guangdong Province as part of moves to prevent another severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, according to the provincial forestry administration.

Guangdong is believed to be the place of origin for the deadly SARS virus, and the eating of wild animals is a widely accepted practice in the province.

On Monday, the Chinese mainland confirmed its first diagnosed SARS case since last July in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong.

Local governments had strengthened their supervision and management of wildlife marketing since genetic tests showed a possible link between the SARS patient and a virus found in the civet cats.

The forestry administration announced a province-wide suspension, and would issue no new permits for wild animal trade and processing.

The administration ordered a broad inspection on Monday to search for and quarantine civet cats, which were believed to have been a carrier of the killer virus that probably jumped from the animal to humans.

During the inspection campaign starting on Tuesday, the province sent over 1,500 staff in major cities to inspect 67 farm produce markets, 797 restaurants and 137 wildlife markets, seizing 171 civet cats.

According to the forestry administration, a total of 2,030 civet cats raised on 41 farms in Guangdong have been quarantined. And 156 civet cats caught in Guangzhou and Zhaoqing cities were destroyed on Monday.

The administration said civet cats on sale in the Guangdong market were mainly from the neighboring provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It said it has set up 18 temporary checkpoints along roads on provincial borders to prevent smuggling.

All the checkpoints have so far confiscated a total of 511 wild animals, including six civet cats and one badger, it said.

The administration on Monday sent letters of intention to neighboring provinces to negotiate cooperation, asking them to stop issuing certificates of allowing cross-province trafficking of wild animals to help blockade smuggling of civets and other wild animals into Guangdong.

Nationwide, wildlife protection and forestry police in Beijing staged a series of raids on wildlife farms, sales markets and restaurants Wednesday, hoping to prevent a possible resurgence of SARS via wild animals.

"We did not find any civet cats on the market or in restaurants during our inspection," a spokesman for the raid enforcement said.

Beijing put some 1,800 species of wild animals on its protection list and banned any eating of wild animals while 10 civet cats in Beijing Zoo had also been quarantined since the SARS outbreak last year.

Elsewhere, authorities of other provinces and cities have launched measures to inspect and quarantine civets amid a new nationwide wave of wild animal controls. Forestry departments in Hainan, Hebei and Liaoning provinces have also taken emergency measures to collect and quarantine the animals.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2004)