Hangzhou suspends live poultry trade due to H7N9

HANGZHOU - Authorities in East China's Hangzhou city on Saturday suspended trades of live poultry in a farm produce market after H7N9 bird flu virus was detected from quails sold on the market.

The second confirmed H7N9 case in East China's Zhejiang province has been found to have eaten quails bought from the Binsheng Agricultural and Sideline Products Market in Shangcheng district, Hangzhou city.

The disease control and prevention center of Hangzhou detected H7N9 bird flu virus from the quails in the market on Friday. And the virus sample has been sent to national disease control and prevention center for recheck.

Relevant departments in Hangzhou began to slaughter the live poultry in the market earlier Saturday.

In a separate development, Shanghai announced on Friday to close its live poultry markets starting Saturday and banned all live poultry from other parts of the country from entering the city.

As of Saturday morning, China has confirmed 16 H7N9 cases - six in Shanghai, six in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui, in the first known human infections of the lesser-known strain. Six people have died from H7N9 infections in Shanghai and Zhejiang.