The WHO said the bird flu that killed two people in Vietnam was not a new, more contagious strain, and officials here rejected claims that pigs now have the virus.
Meanwhile, China has confirmed three more outbreaks among birds.
The UN agency said on Saturday that "reassuring" test results from the two Vietnamese sisters, who died earlier this month, show "both viruses are of avian origin and contain no human influenza genes."
The women's blood was tested because experts suspected they may have caught the disease from their brother, who also died. That scenario hasn't been ruled out -- but so far, there have been no known cases of person-to-person transmission in the current bird flu outbreak.
Health experts' greatest worry has been the possibility of the disease combining with a human influenza virus to create a more lethal version that could be spread between people -- giving rise to a global pandemic.
Avian influenza has killed 18 people and ravaged poultry farms in 10 Asian nations and territories. Governments have slaughtered more than 50 million chickens and banned poultry imports to try to contain its spread.
Bird flu has jumped to people in Vietnam and Thailand, with health officials tracing most of those cases to contact with sick birds.
But experts have said it's possible the virus moved to humans through another mammal, such as pigs, which have been implicated in past human flu epidemics.
A Vietnam representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) fanned those fears late Friday, saying preliminary tests found the virus in the snouts of pigs in Hanoi. But that doesn't necessarily mean the swine are infected, his agency said.
The nasal swab test may merely confirm the presence of infected chicken droppings on their snouts. More rigorous tests -- looking for the virus or antibodies in the blood -- still need to be carried out.
Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ran separate tests on pigs in bird flu-affected areas, and the results were all negative, said Bui Quang Anh, director of the ministry's veterinary department.
"I can formally announce that no bird flu virus has been found in pigs in Vietnam," he said Saturday. "I don't know on what justification FAO made such a statement."
Meanwhile, the WHO said it was also investigating whether a Cambodian woman who died recently had bird flu in the country's first suspected human case of the disease.
The patient became ill in Cambodia's Takeo province and died in a hospital in neighboring Vietnam, said Sean Tobin, a WHO medical epidemiologist in the capital, Phnom Penh.
China's Agriculture Ministry confirmed three additional outbreaks of bird flu in poultry on Saturday.
The cases were confirmed in the provinces of Hubei, Henan and Jiangxi, the ministry said in a statement released through the official Xinhua News Agency.
Quarantine measures were immediately instituted, Xinhua said. Both Hubei and Jiangxi have reported previous cases in fowl in recent days.
In Thailand, the world's fourth largest exporter of chicken products, the government gave away 54.4 tonnes of cooked meat and eggs at a feast Saturday in a park opposite Bangkok's royal palace.
Health experts say eating eggs and chicken meat is safe, as long as they're well-cooked. But many in Thailand, where five people have died, remain unconvinced. There have been 13 bird flu deaths in Vietnam, which this week banned all poultry sales.
In Thailand, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government has faced widespread allegations of initially covering up the outbreak, which livestock officials may have detected as early as November, to protect Thailand's chicken exports.
Thailand shipped about 453,597 tonnes of chicken worth 52 US$1.3 billion in 2003. The EU, Japan and other major markets have banned Thai chicken products over disease fears.
Governments are battling the virus in Thailand, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan.
The strain afflicting Pakistan and Taiwan, however, is not considered dangerous to humans.
Officials in the US state of Delaware also ordered the slaughter of some 12,000 chickens after confirming that the flock was infected by avian influenza. State agriculture secretary Michael Scuse said the strain is different from the one that has spread to the human population in Asia.
South Korea on Saturday imposed an indefinite ban on US poultry imports "as a precautionary measure."
Japan has temporarily also suspended all US poultry imports, Japanese media said yesterday.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in