The latest outbreak of bird flu, which killed 545 ducks and
chickens in Central China's Hunan
Province, has been stamped out, the Ministry of Agriculture
said Wednesday.
The third case of the fatal avian influenza in China reported in
a week is suspected to have been caused by virus-carrying
waterfowl, experts said Wednesday.
The contagion, following one in northern Inner
Mongolia and another in eastern Anhui
Province, was first detected among 13 household farms in
Wantang Village, Shebu Town of Xiangtan County, last weekend, the
county veterinary bureau said.
The National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory identified the
infection as the deadly H5 subtype avian influenza virus on
Tuesday; and the result has been sent to the World Organization for
Animal Health.
"Immediately after the epidemic broke out, Xiangtan County
initiated contingency schemes, culling 2,487 domestic birds within
a 3-kilometer radius of the outbreak site, and vaccinating 43,750
others in the vicinity," the veterinary bureau said in a
statement.
They also implemented control measures including quarantine and
disinfection of infected farms, the Veterinary Bureau under the
Ministry of Agriculture said in a report to the World Organization
for Animal Health on Tuesday.
The ministry said it sent a working group to Xiangtan upon
receiving a report of a suspect case from the local government, to
guide prevention and control efforts.
"No new outbreak site has been found in the province," the
ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
Earlier, Health Minister Gao Qiang said on Tuesday that China
has set up a special department to deal with the situation. "The
ministry has established 192 monitoring spots across the country
for bird flu; and a strict mechanism is also in place for
surveillance," he reportedly said.
Meanwhile, China is working together with the rest of the world
to curb the epidemic, Gao said.
He said that China has set up effective channels for information
sharing with many other countries, including the United States.
"If there's an outbreak among birds, the Ministry of Agriculture
will report it to international organizations, other nations and
the public. If human beings are infected, the Ministry of Health
will make it public," he said.
Gao made the remarks during a press conference while attending a
two-day brainstorming session in Ottawa, Canada, on preventing and
preparing for a flu pandemic.
Health ministers and experts from 30 countries gathered to
discuss measures to ward off a wider spread of the bird flu virus,
which experts fear might mutate into a deadly human pandemic.
Wednesday, European health officials ended a three-day review in
Copenhagen of the continent's readiness to contain a possible flu
pandemic, as tests confirmed the deadly strain of bird flu had
reached Croatia. The EU Commission announced Wednesday that the
deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, which has killed more than 60
people in Asia, was found in dead swans in Croatia.
It was detected earlier in birds in Romania, Russia and Turkey,
raising fears it could spread to the rest of Europe.
(China Daily October 27, 2005)