Bird Flu affects China's major agricultural base
Manila Times (January 05, 2006)

DAZHU COUNTY: China has suffered its first bird-flu outbreak in southwestern Sichuan, the nation’s third-most populous province and a major agricultural base, the government said Wednesday.

China is seen as a potential flashpoint for a feared global pandemic because of its massive poultry population and the nation’s often primitive farming conditions, where humans and animals live in close proximity.

A disease that killed 1,800 birds in a village in Dazhu county in the southwest Chinese province in late December was confirmed as the H5N1 virus Tuesday, the agriculture ministry said on its website.

Nationwide, it was the 32nd outbreak among poultry since early 2005, based on a previous tally published by the authorities.

According to the same tally, 28 of the outbreaks have occurred within the past three months, raising fears that China is facing the risk of a nationwide epidemic among its poultry industry, the biggest in the world.

China has confirmed seven human cases of bird flu since late last year, including three fatalities, with the latest—the death of a 41-year-old woman—announced last week.

Sichuan, with more than 87 million inhabitants, has traditionally been one of the country’s main agricultural production areas due to its fertile and well-watered soil.

The Sichuan livestock bureau declined to speculate what caused the outbreak, which is the first on record in more than two weeks in China.

With little idea about how the feared virus spreads, authorities in Sichuan stuck to standard operating procedure—isolation of the outbreak through mass cullings and vaccinations.

The agriculture ministry said a total of 12,900 poultry were culled in the vicinity following the outbreak in Dazhu county.

The county’s remaining 4.6 million poultry have all been vaccinated, said Qu of the livestock bureau.

The government announced late last year it intended to vaccinate its entire poultry population of 14 billion against bird flu.

Hong Kong announced Wednesday the suspension of poultry and imports from Sichuan, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

More than 70 people have died from bird flu throughout Asia since late 2003, with nearly 40 of the fatalities occurring in 2005 alone. --AFP