China and Vietnam yesterday each confirmed new bird flu outbreaks, while Japanese authorities said 180,000 chickens would be killed after signs of the virus were found at a farm.
Adding to global jitters about bird flu, the Asian Development Bank warned in a report that a flu pandemic could kill up to 3 million people in Asia, cost the region billions and plunge the world into recession.
China's latest outbreak -- the fourth in the past three weeks in the world's most populous country -- killed almost 9,000 chickens on Oct. 26 in Badaohao village in Liaoning Province east of Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday, citing the Agriculture Ministry.
PHOTO: AP
The outbreak prompted authorities to destroy 369,900 other birds in the region, Xinhua said, and came despite efforts to tighten controls on China's 5.2 billion chickens, ducks and other poultry. Hong Kong immediately banned poultry imports from Liaoning, reflecting growing concern that China is becoming a potential bird flu flashpoint.
Beijing created an anti-flu task force this week and a 2 billion yuan (US$250 million) fund to pay for anti-disease work. In the latest anti-bird flu measure, Beijing ordered hospitals to report data on flu cases daily to the government, Xinhua said.
No human cases have been reported in China, but authorities warn it is inevitable if the government can't stop repeated outbreaks in poultry.
In Vietnam, more than 3,000 birds died or were culled this week in three villages in Bac Giang Province, about 60km northeast of Hanoi, provincial vice chairman Nguyen Dang said.
In Japan, authorities said antibody testing had found that chickens at a farm in Ibaraki state had been exposed to a virus of the H5 strain, and that 180,000 birds would be culled. About 1.5 million birds have already been killed in the state after finding signs of the disease at other farms.
In a report released on Thursday, the Asian Development Bank outlined a number of scenarios -- some catastrophic -- that could face Asian nations in the event of a global flu outbreak.
In a worst-case scenario, in which the psychological impact of a pandemic lasts a year, the bank said Asia could lose almost US$282.7 billion -- or 6.5 percent of its GDP -- in consumption, trade and investment and another US$14.2 billion due to workers' incapacity and death.
The report said that "growth in Asia would virtually stop," and the economic impact would likely force the world into a recession. That scenario assumes about 20 percent of Asia's population would fall ill, and 0.5 percent would die.
In a less pessimistic forecast, the bank said that if the psychological impact of an outbreak lasted six months, the cost to Asia in lost consumption, trade and investment would be about US$99 billion.
A separate report by the World Bank said a human pandemic triggered by bird flu could cost the world economy as much as US$800 billion.
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Asia using bizarre bird flu controls
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