September 6, 2006

 

China promises limited impact from bird flu this fall
 

 

Bird flu would not be making much of an impact in China this autumn despite the cooler weather making conditions ideal for bird flu. This is because mass vaccination efforts would be stepped up, Li Jinxiang, deputy director general of the Ministry of Agriculture's veterinary department said Tuesday (Sep 5).

 

Li was speaking on the sidelines of a press conference in which ministry officials vowed to continue vaccinating all the country's poultry, despite warnings from experts that vaccinations could mask the virus.

 

Zhang Baowen, vice minister of agriculture, argued that the only way to prevent the spread of bird flu is to step up vaccinations.

 

China began vaccinating all its poultry in November 2005 after several outbreaks across the country.

 

Officials said their aim was to vaccinate almost the entire annual stock of 15 billion poultry this year. China has vaccinated nearly a-third of its poultry flock in the first six months of the year. However, vaccinated poultry can still carry the H5N1 bird flu virus and spread it to other birds and humans, experts said.

 

However, vaccination efforts this time round would include monitoring for signs of vaccine-resistant strains, Li said.

 

The fact that only a few of the human cases of bird flu in China were preceded by reports of outbreaks in poultry has raised concerns from The World Health Organization

 

Chinese officials said in most cases, the origin of infection is not known but acknowledged China still faced difficulties in controlling the spread of bird flu and detecting outbreaks, especially in remote and mountainous areas.

 

Although backyard farming has been blamed for most of the spread of the virus from chickens to people, it was difficult to implement changes as much of China's poultry production still comes from these sources. Farmers were also too poor to switch to industrial scale production.

 

China's last outbreak of bird flu occurred in early August in a duck farm in Changsha city, Hunan province in central China.

 

Meanwhile, authorities are planning to set down rules on sharing samples of bird flu viruses with other countries, Li added.

 

China has not provided international health agencies with samples of bird flu viruses found in the country since 2004, but is putting in place procedures to do so, a senior official said.

 

Scientific analyses of bird flu samples are important because they help experts trace the evolution of viruses and the geographical spread of any particular strain.

 

Li said Beijing wanted "to conform to WHO (World Health Organisation) standards for international transfers.

 

Though China did not submit samples, it has regularly reported results of its laboratory tests, including genetic information, to international bodies, Li added.

 

China has also offered technical aid to neighbouring countries like Vietnam, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia and Indonesia in fighting the disease.