The Chinese Ministry of Railways has issued an emergency notice prohibiting passengers from bringing young fowls into railway stations across the country, in a bid to prevent possible spread of bird flu.

All railways stations should stop implementing the regulation that allows passengers to bring young fowls with them, and strengthen inspection to see that no young fowls be carried in passengers' handbags or hidden in their consigned baggage, the emergency notice says.

To prevent the highly infectious avian flu spreading to Beijing, the ministry has stopped consigned fowl shipment to, from and via railway stations in the national capital since Monday.

The ministry has also required railway bureaus and professional transport companies to suspend shipment of animals and animal products to, from and via six railway stations, one in Hubei Province, and the other five in Yunnan Province, along with the transshipment of poultry.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2004)