State Forestry Administration has inaugurated a special arm to monitor bird flu epidemic among migratory and wild birds.

The administration's general monitoring station in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, will be responsible for the surveillance of bird and animal-born epidemics nationwide starting this week.

Migratory birds are an important carrier of highly pathogenic bird flu virus, said Zhao Liangping, head of the monitoring station. "Most bird flu-hit areas have wetlands nearby and the epidemic often breaks out sometime after the arrivals of migratory birds."

At least 2 billion migratory birds stop over China every year, about 25 percent of the world's total, according to the forestry administration.

Zhao's organization will track major routes of the birds and enhance long-term surveillance at lakes, swamps and other wetlands where migratory birds often stop over to spend the winter or look for food.

(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2005)