February 28, 2006

 

China says no sign yet of bird flu among migratory birds
 

 

No outbreaks of the potentially deadly bird flu virus have so far been found among migratory birds in China this spring, top government wildlife official Zhuo Rongsheng said Tuesday.

 

Monitors have reported cases of dead birds, but there have been no signs since last autumn that the deadly H5N1 strain is spreading among migrating wild birds in China, Zhuo told a news conference Monday.

 

The recent discovery of birds infected with H5N1 in the Middle East, Western Europe and Africa has reinforced the belief that the virus is spreading through wild birds.

 

Migratory flocks have in recent weeks begun flying back through China from South-east Asia and Australia.

 

China recently announced it would set up another 200 monitoring stations, adding to the more than 500 already in place. Zhuo said anywhere that bird flu was discovered among migrating birds would be immediately isolated.

 

China's agriculture minister warned Saturday of a possible "massive bird flu outbreak" as the country announced two new human cases of the H5N1 flu strain, raising to 14 the number of human infections since October.

 

Du Qinglin called for agriculture authorities to be on "high alert" and to boost disease monitoring and vaccination efforts.

 

Outbreaks in poultry occurred last year in 32 areas throughout China, killing 163,100 chickens, ducks and other fowl. Authorities destroyed 22.6 million more birds to keep the virus from spreading, Du said in a briefing for Chinese legislators.

 

The latest human cases include a 9-year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman, both hospitalized in critical condition with fever and pneumonia, the Health Ministry reported.

 

Of those sickened in China, eight have died.

 

Outbreaks in Chinese poultry have continued despite a mass inoculation effort that the government says has vaccinated all of the country's vast flocks of chickens, ducks and other birds.