Some 12,800 live poultry are expected to be imported on Monday (18, June) as imports resumed, announced by the SAR government today.

Sales Marques, President of the Provisional Municipal Council of Macau, announced the lift of the ban on poultry imports on a public occasion.

Chickens, Pigeons and Quails are among the live poultry to be imported in the first day after the ban while imports of waterbirds will be halted until further notice.

The two provisional municipal councils had reached consensus with the Zhuhai authority concerning the quarantine procedures on live poultry being imported to Macau and a memorandum will be signed tomorrow.

Both sides had agreed on resuming imports on Monday.

The Macau SAR Government announced a series of new measures on quarantines and handling of live poultry to prevent the spread of avian flu in the SAR yesterday.

New measures included stricter quarantine regulations and separate handling of waterbirds with other sorts of poultry.

The Government decided to halt the poultry imports to Macau and cull all live poultry in Macau in May after two imported live geese were tested infected with H5N1 virus.

About 60,000 birds were culled in the action/; 5.5 million patacas were paid on subsidies to operators and workers in the sector.

Some 8,000 chickens are imported to Macau daily before the halt while daily imports of waterbirds are less than 1,000.