A policeman confiscates civet cats at a wild animal market in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, January 5, 2004. On Monday China's Health Ministry confirmed the first SARS case on the Chinese mainland since last July in Guangdong, planning to eliminate about 10,000 civets and to close wild animal markets to remove a possible source for the fatal disease.

Guangdong police confiscate civet cats at a wild animals market.

Feng Liuxiang, Deputy Director-General of the Health Department of Guangdong Province, speaks during a news conference on the latest SARS situation in Guangzhou, January 5, 2004.

Henk Bekedam, World Health Organization representative in China, expresses his confidence about traveling within the country at a news conference in Beijing, Jan 5, 2004. The WHO on Monday urged the Chinese government to be cautious in its planned mass slaughter of civet cats in an anti-SARS measure, saying a reckless culling could eliminate evidence of the origins of the disease.