January 28, 2004

 

 

China Slaughters 60,000 Chicken To Curb Bird Flu

 

China said Wednesday it had slaughtered nearly 60,000 chickens in a campaign against bird flu, trying to assure the public the disease was under control a day after the country's first cases were confirmed in ducks.

 

People who had contact with the infected birds in the southern town of Dingdang in the Guangxi region were "under close watch," said an official of the agriculture bureau in Nanning, the regional capital.

 

"Those people...have access to medical care if they need," said the official, who would give only his family name, Lu. He said he didn't know how many people were affected or other details.

 

Authorities isolated the area around the Guangxi farm and slaughtered some 14,000 birds found within three kilometers, the government said. Poultry from farms within five kilometers was quarantined.

 

In the central province of Hunan, where a "suspected case" of bird flu was reported, 44,000 chickens were slaughtered, state television said. Areas near the suspicious cases were isolated.

 

The newscast showed workers in Dingdang in head-to-toe protective gear burning sacks full of dead chickens.

 

"The epidemic is under control," said a dispatch by the official Xinhua News Agency on the front pages of state newspapers. A headline in the newspaper Beijing Daily Messenger declared, "Bird flu can be prevented, controlled and cured."

 

The high-profile attempt to reassure the public comes one year after China's outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, when the communist government was criticized for its slow response to pleas for information and action against the disease.

 

Xinhua quoted an expert from the Ministry of Agriculture as saying the government had long experience at coping with bird flu.

 

"Prevention work against bird flu dates back over 100 years and many nations have accumulated valuable experience, which proves the feasibility of preventing a serious outbreak," the expert, Jia Youling, was quoted as saying.

 

In Hubei province, to the north of Hunan, authorities have issued 7 million doses of vaccine against the flu, state television said. Phone calls Wednesday to health and agriculture offices in the province weren't answered.

 

Across Asia, millions of chickens and ducks have been killed as the virus spread through 10 countries in recent weeks. In Vietnam and Thailand, at least 10 have died because the virus has jumped to people, with most cases traced to direct contact with sick birds.

 

No person-to-person transmission has been reported, though health officials fear the virus might mix with a human flu strain, creating a form that could trigger a human flu pandemic.

 

In Shanghai, a city of 20 million people, medical workers were stationed at fever clinics at airports and train stations to check the temperatures of travelers - a measure that was already in place for SARS but would help with bird flu as well.

 

Millions of migrant workers began flooding back into the city this week after visiting their hometowns to celebrate Chinese New Year.

 

In Shanghai supermarkets, trussed and plucked whole chickens, packaged with ginger slices and onions for stewing, were piled high. Chicken wings and hearts sat nearby, along with salted goose, pigeons and other more exotic poultry.

 

One shopper said she was resigned to living with food safety threats.

 

"What is safe anymore?" said the woman, who would give only her surname, Xiao. "You can't eat beef from America and you can't eat this and that - but you can't not eat."