February 9, 2004

 

 

China Investigates Possible Bird Flu Death In Migratory Birds

 

 

Health authorities in eastern China are testing dead migratory finches in Jiangsu for bird flu. According to local officials, a large number of brambling finches - a migratory bird that spends winters throughout China - fell dead earlier this week in parts of Jiangsu province.

 

Given worries that migratory bird species might be carrying a deadly strain of avian influenza, blood samples were taken to see what killed the birds, said a staffer contacted by phone at the Avian Flu Command Office in Taizhou, a city in Jiangsu north of the Yangtze River about 200 kilometers northwest of Shanghai.

 

Bird flu has killed 18 people and tens of millions of fowl across Asia - but no human cases have been reported in China. Officials have rejected recent rumors of infected people, and say there was no attempt at a cover-up.

 

China has confirmed or suspected cases of bird flu in poultry in many provinces. On Thursday, state television reported four more cases of avian influenza had been confirmed in birds, with three new suspected outbreaks.

 

Suspected cases have been found in Anhui, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangxi, all regions near Jiangsu, though the government has not announced any cases in Jiangsu.

 

Shenzhen authorities were testing to see if bird flu killed black swans that recently died there. Shanghai and Hong Kong have closed bird reserves as a precaution.

 

The official in Taizhou, who gave her surname as Xu, said that about 100 brambling finches, a small sparrow-like bird with an orange breast, "fell from the sky" Tuesday in Kou'an, a town outside the city. Blood samples were taken the same day but results were not yet available, she said.

 

Other accounts put the number of dead birds much higher.

 

An official at a local poultry quarantine branch, who refused to give his name, said about 6,000 finches had fallen dead abruptly. So far, only about 2,300 dead birds had been burned and buried, he said.

 

The head of the town government in Kou'an, who gave his surname as Gao, said

he doubted that number - or that the birds died from flu.

 

"Since when do you see that many birds together all at once?" Gao said. "Maybe they all ate some poisonous food. Let's wait and see the results of the tests."

 

When the birds fell dead, villagers rushed to collect them, possibly for their pretty plumage. But quarantine officials persuaded them to give the birds back, he said.

 

Gao said less than 2,000 dead birds were collected, burned and buried. The area was disinfected and local residents are under quarantine and are being given daily temperature checks, he said.

 

"I went to the spot immediately after it happened Tuesday afternoon, since the wheat field the birds dropped into is not far from here," Gao said.

 

Quarantine Checkpoints on "High Alert"

 

Meanwhile, local governments in west China's Gansu and Shaanxi provinces reported that they were inoculating poultry, slaughtering domestic fowl within 5 kilometers of any suspected outbreaks, inspecting quarantine efforts throughout their regions, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

 

Quarantine checkpoints in Shaanxi were on "high alert" and were inspecting and disinfecting vehicles containing poultry. Farms with 1,000 or more birds had finished vaccinating their entire flocks and were closed to outsiders, it said.

 

Vice Agricultural Minister Liu Jian acknowledged Thursday that China's defenses against bird flu were "weak and vulnerable" in some areas because of the country's size and its developing surveillance systems.

 

Liu pledged stringent measures to stop the virus before it spreads to people and promised to boost communication between the Beijing central government and local officials - a consistent problem in China's far-flung regions.