February 13, 2004

Taiwan Culls Chickens As Bird Flu Hits

Taiwan ordered the slaughter of 11,000 more chickens infected with a mild version of avian flu, and officials reported an outbreak of the virus at a farm raising pet birds on Friday.

Officials ordered the pet bird farm in southern Tainan County to kill about 300 birds, including Swinhoe's pheasants - a once-endangered indigenous bird with a short white crest and a blue head - said Yeh Ying, an official at the Council of Agriculture.

The council also said that 11,000 chickens would be killed at a farm in the central county of Changhua.

"We'll have the birds slaughtered and the farms disinfected," Yeh said.

"Farms in a radius of three kilometers will be closely monitored for six months," she said.

The culling was ordered at the two farms after test results showed some of the birds were infected with H5N2, a less dangerous strain of bird flu that has not jumped to humans, the council said.

The more virulent H5N1, which has killed at least 14 people in Vietnam and five in Thailand, has not reached Taiwan, officials said.

Before Friday, Taiwan had already culled a total of 325,000 chickens and ducks diagnosed with the milder strain.

Bird flu has been reported in 10 Asian countries and territories and tens of millions of chickens have been killed by the virus or destroyed to prevent its spread.