October 11, 2004

Japan, China, S Korea To Join Asean Bird-Flu Fight

Japan, China and South Korea have agreed to join an Association of Southeast Asian Nations task force to combat bird flu, the Kyodo news agency reported Friday.

Japan, China and South Korea agreed to join the task force during Friday's meeting of the Asean agricultural and forestry ministers in Yangon, Singapore's National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said Friday.

Mah said Asean will establish the task force "as soon as possible," and it will hold its first meeting in Singapore before the end of 2004, Kyodo reported.

A joint statement released by the Asean, Japanese, Chinese and South Korean ministers said they "expressed their support for the formulation of the HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) task force to coordinate the control and eradication of HPAI in the region and to share experiences in HPAI control."

Avian influenza caused by the H5N1 virus, which can leap from poultry to humans, has devastated the poultry industry in Asia and has so far this year claimed 31 human lives, Kyodo said.

Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.