January 18, 2007

 

China aims to wipe out bird flu by 2015

 

 

China would spend more than US$1 billion over the next two years to stamp out animal-borne epidemics such as bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease which it hopes to wipe out by 2015, state media said on Wednesday (Jan 17).

 

China has reported a total of 22 human cases of bird flu, including 14 fatalities, since 2003.

 

It has the world's largest poultry population and millions of backyard birds roaming free.

 

The authorities hope to control or even eradicate severe animal disease like bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease by 2015, the China Daily said.

 

Bird flu has made a comeback in Asia in recent weeks, with Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia reporting fresh outbreaks.

 

China aims to set up a national animal epidemic-prevention system, expand supervision and train more vets as part of a plan issued by five government departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission and the agriculture ministry, the China Daily said.

 

As China's poultry and livestock breeding industry expands and trade in animal products grow, animal diseases have also grown in severity, the paper said.

China's weak and inadequate epidemic-prevention system is slowing the development of the livestock breeding industry, it added.

 

Deaths from animal diseases had led to direct economic losses last year of nearly 40 billion yuan (US$5.13 billion), the plan said.

 

Although more than 100 million people work in the livestock breeding sector in China, only 1 percent of livestock and less than 5 percent of aquatic products were exported, the paper said.

 

Meanwhile, Hong Kong confirmed on Wednesday that a bird of prey found dead in the city carried the H5N1 virus, the second such case this month.

 

The crested goshawk was discovered on January 9.

 

Earlier this month authorities confirmed that a wild bird found in a busy downtown shopping area of the southern Chinese territory also was carrying the virus.

 

Authorities have been on high alert, with checks being tightened at the border with China, where smuggled birds sparked the first outbreak of H5N1 among local birds in years.

 

Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died of a then unknown mutation of the avian flu virus.