China's vast size and its developing disease reporting systems have made it "weak and vulnerable" against bird flu, a top Chinese official said yesterday, while Thailand reported two new suspected human cases of the deadly virus.
Some experts meeting in Rome on Asia's bird flu crisis recommended vaccinating healthy poultry as part of a broader strategy to control the disease, which has claimed 10 human lives in Vietnam and five in Thailand, as well as tens of millions of chickens in the region.
Health officials previously have said safely destroying infected birds is the best way to contain the disease. Mass slaughter and import bans have ravaged Asia's poultry industry -- some 50 million birds, mostly chickens, have been killed.
PHOTO: EPA
Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai ordered a nationwide ban on sales of all live chickens and poultry products, state media reported yesterday.
Officials said the order was to contain the disease's spread, without elaborating. It was not clear whether authorities feared people might catch the disease by eating infected chicken meat.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there are no indications so far that bird flu is spreading to people who eat properly cleaned and cooked poultry products. But countries worldwide, including the US on Wednesday, have slapped import bans on poultry from nations affected with bird flu.
Thailand has sought to restore confidence in its poultry industry with government giveaways of cooked chicken and eggs.
China yesterday urged caution when eating eggs but said there was no cause for serious alarm.
"There is a chance that in affected regions eggs may carry bird flu," said Jia Youling, a poultry expert with the agricultural ministry. "We suggest that when eating eggs, they be very well boiled."
No human cases have been reported in China, but by Wednesday, there were five confirmed outbreaks and 18 suspected ones in chickens, ducks and geese throughout the country, Vice Agriculture Minister Liu Jian said.
In a rare news conference, he vowed stringent measures to stop the virus before it spreads to people. Liu acknowledged that "some parts of our animal disease-prevention system are weak and vulnerable, and the public has limited knowledge about the disease and ways to prevent it."
"The poultry population in China is quite big, and production methods are quite diverse. That has brought us some difficulties in controlling this epidemic," he added.
The two new suspected cases in Thailand were a two-year-old boy from northeastern Khon Kaen province and a 67-year-old man from central Chainat province, Thai officials said. Thailand has 19 suspected cases in all, nine of whom have died.
Bird flu has now been found in 40 of Thailand's 76 provinces and authorities said yesterday that nearly 26 million chickens have been culled, making the mass slaughter all but complete in five of the provinces.
In neighboring Cambodia, the avian virus was found in two dead swans on a small farm near the capital Phnom Penh, the second time the disease has been detected near the city, the Agriculture Ministry said. The disease has not been found to have jumped to humans in Cambodia.
The WHO is working to develop a human vaccine against bird flu, but an animal vaccine against a closely related strain of the disease already exists. Some farmers have used it to protect against other forms of bird flu and experts believe it could give chickens partial protection from the deadly virus now afflicting Asia's farms.
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