Two domestic cats in Thailand died of the same bird flu that has killed at least 22 people in Asia, a veterinarian said yesterday, a day after Canada announced its first case of a different strain of the virus.
The discoveries have alarmed scientists who now fear the disease can spread as easily between species as it has between countries.
They said yesterday developing human vaccines must be a priority to prevent a pandemic like the one in 1918 that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.
"It is a pandemic threat constantly simmering," Dr. Marion Koopmans, of the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands, said in an interview in London.
China confirmed two more suspected outbreaks of the influenza H5N1 virus in two provinces yesterday.
Thai officials also reported that the virus had reappeared in two provinces that had been declared under control.
With the influenza H5N1 virus spreading at an unprecedented rate through poultry and with 22 people dead in Asia, researchers warned it poses a substantial threat to human health.
In two reports in the Lancet medical journal, Koopmans and Malik Peiris of the University of Hong Kong, who both dealt with previous cases of animal-to-human transmission of flu, described why the current avian outbreak is so dangerous.
Koopmans said it is possible the virus may not be completely controlled in poultry because it is so widespread, which furthered the case for making a vaccine a top priority.
An Australian government research lab said a locally developed drug, Relenza, used for treating human influenza, had proven effective against bird flu in laboratory tests.
The virus has also crossed the species barrier to domestic animals, and in Bangkok yesterday scientists confirmed the deaths of two house cats.
"We found H5N1 in two of the three cats," said Teerapol Sirinaruemit, a veterinarian at Kasetsart University's animal hospital who conducted autopsies on three animals.
"They might have caught the virus from eating chicken carcasses or from live chickens that had bird flu," he said.
The three were among 15 cats living in a house located near an infected chicken farm 60km west of Bangkok, Teerapol said.
Fourteen cats died, but it was unclear if all had been infected with the H5N1 virus. One cat was still alive.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it plans to revise the export control list for strategic high-tech products by adding 18 items under three categories — advanced 3D printing equipment, advanced semiconductor equipment and quantum computers — which would require local manufacturers to obtain licenses for their export. The ministry’s announcement yesterday came as the International Trade Administration issued a 60-day preview period for planned revisions to the Export Control List for Dual Use Items and Technology (軍商兩用貨品及技術出口管制清單) and the Common Military List (一般軍用貨品清單), which fall under regulations governing export destinations for strategic high-tech commodities and specific strategic high-tech commodities. The
RSS