In a press release issued Monday, the Ministry of Agriculture
said that it had found no pigs infected with the bird flu virus
this year.
At the start of this year's bird flu outbreak, the ministry
launched a large-scale, nationwide monitoring project, conducting
pathogenic and serological checks on more than 1.1 million samples
of poultry and some samples of pigs. No pigs infected by the bird
flu virus were identified in those tests.
The ministry indicated that it reported the results of those
tests to international organizations, including the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health
Organization.
China attaches great importance to the prevention and control of
bird flu, said the ministry in its press release.
It also indicated that in a research report published early this
year, an expert mentioned that China had found the deadly H5N1
strain of bird flu in pigs in 2003. Researchers around the world
have shown that the bird flu virus can infect mammals as well as
poultry.
(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2004)