China clamps down on poultry trade ( 2004-02-01 08:48) (Agencies)
Asia's battle against the
bird flu virus intensified as China halted poultry exports from three more
regions with suspected outbreaks and Vietnam imposed a ban on all transport of
chickens.
Complicating matters for China, the Ministry of Health also reported Saturday
the winter's fourth confirmed case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which
killed nearly 800 people worldwide last year.
The patient, a 40-year-old doctor, had already been discharged from hospital
in the southern province of Guangdong, the supposed origin of last year's
outbreak, the ministry said on its website.
The World Health Organisation had earlier urged China to learn from last
year's SARS outbreak by swiftly containing the spread of bird flu, after
authorities confirmed two more areas were affected and announced four new
suspected outbreaks, making a total of seven hot spots.
"We have repeatedly said there is a brief window of opportunity to act within
China," said Dr Julie Hall, a Beijing-based WHO infectious disease expert.
"This latest news strongly suggests that the window is getting smaller with
each passing day," she said in a statement.
As part of efforts to contain bird flu in China, a chicken export ban has
been widened to include the three new regions with reported outbreaks including
its most populous city, the eastern metropolis of Shanghai.
Poultry is also being culled in the new suspected areas and poultry workers
are being quarantined, officials told AFP.
"In six to seven hours, we've killed 35,000 chickens," said Yang Ping, an
official in Anhui province where dozens of chickens died at a farm this week.
In response to the growing crisis, Hong Kong announced it had suspended the
import of all live birds and poultry meat from the whole of mainland China.
WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said a similar strain was found in samples that
were rechecked by a WHO-affiliated laboratory recently.
"One of our collaborating centers received two weeks ago a sample from a
country that we are not naming that had been taken last April," she told AFP,
adding that the virus looked to be a similar strain as H5N1.
Asia's first recent bird flu outbreak was reported in South Korea on December
15.
More than 28 million birds have now been culled across Asia to curb the
disease which has killed 10 people in Vietnam and Thailand and been detected in
chickens in eight other countries.
Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam
have all reported outbreaks of H5N1 -- the deadliest strain of the virus --
among poultry, while Taiwan and Pakistan have reported weaker strains.
In Vietnam, where dozens of people are hospitalised with suspected infections
of the virus which has hit two thirds of its 64 provinces, Prime Minister Phan
Van Khai imposed a ban on all transport of chicken.
State media said Khai urged authorities to set up control stations and
prevent the transport of poultry from one locality to another.
In Thailand, where Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's administration is
fending off accusations of a bird flu cover-up, a report said that a government
agency believed the virus had reached the kingdom in November but suppressed the
news for fear of damaging the economy and causing panic.
"The mass chicken deaths in Nakhon Sawan (province) and the bird-flu-like
symptoms made us believe avian flu was already here at that time," National
Institute of Animal Health director Nimit Traiwanatham said according to the
Bangkok Post.
Thaksin said 14 million chickens have now been culled throughout the country,
where the virus has spread to 32 of its 76 provinces including Phang Nga near
the resort island of Phuket.
Seeking to reassure a public gripped by bird flu fears, he promised to pay
three million baht (76,000 dollars) to the family of anyone who died from eating
cooked chicken or eggs.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that
the mass cullings it considers absolutely necessary to contain the bird flu
virus are not happening fast enough in poorer Asian countries.
But Indonesia appeared to backtrack Friday on a planned mass cull of
chickens, with officials saying they would only carry out a selective slaughter
despite pressure to join other affected nations in culling flocks.
The FAO said that world experts on bird flu, including specialists from the
WHO and the World Organisation for Animal Health, will meet in Rome next week to
plot a strategy for controlling the disease.
