February 6, 2004

China Culls Over 1.2 Million Poultry

China yesterday said that over 1.2 million poultry has been culled to prevent further spread of bird flu virus in the country. 

"There are no cases of human infections on the Chinese mainland due to the tight surveillance networks established after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) last year," Vice Minister of Health, Wang Longde told reporters.

At a joint press conference hosted by the Ministries of Agriculture and Health in the wake of rapidly rising cases of bird flu in China, Wang said the government had worked out measures to prevent transmission of bird flu to human beings.

He said experts hold that there is a little possibility that human beings can be infected by the deadly bird flu, so long as the H5N1 strain of bird flu is not combined with other viruses of human beings.

In addition, the number of persons infected by bird flu is quite limited so far, he said.

Earlier, Vice Minister of Agriculture, Liu Jian said that China had reported five confirmed cases and 18 suspected cases of bird flu by yesterday, since the first confirmed case was announced on January 27.

By yesterday, some 56,417 poultry had been infected with bird flu and 49,236 died. The country had slaughtered 1,215,057 chickens, ducks and geese to prevent spread of the disease, Liu said.