Concern as bird flu makes the jump to other species

After killing millions of chickens and ducks across Asia, bird flu is feared to have jumped to some exotic species, possibly killing a leopard and cranes in Thailand and pheasants in Taiwan.

A zoo in northern Thailand has even isolated two healthy giant pandas over fears they may catch the disease.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned that the disease -- which has killed 14 people in Vietnam and five in Thailand -- still has not been controlled in several Asian countries.

"Cambodia, China, Indonesia and Laos continue to report new outbreaks in poultry," FAO said.

Around million chickens have been slaughtered across Asia, excluding China, to curb bird flu's spread, it said.

Indian yesterday they plan to hold an emergency meeting in New Delhi tomorrow of health and agricultural officials from seven South Asian nations to draft a strategy to prevent the spread of bird flu in the highly populous region.

In Thailand, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Prapat Panyachatraksa said on Friday that tests showed that a clouded leopard died of bird flu on Jan. 27 at Khao Khiew Zoo in Chonburi province, 70km south of Bangkok.

The World Health Organization said that if confirmed it could be the first known case of the disease found in an exotic animal or a member of the cat family.

Two tests showed the leopard had succumbed to bird flu, but the exact strain was unclear, Prapat said. Officials were awaiting the results of a third test.

A zoo official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the leopard might have eaten chicken infected with bird flu.

Prapat announced that tests were being carried out on more than 200 cranes that died at Bungboraphet Bird Park in Nakhon Sawan province, 210km north of Bangkok.

At the Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand's north, workers were trying to keep wild roosters and hens from coming close to the endangered pandas that have been rented from China for 10 years for US$250,000, the zoo's director Tanapat Pongpamorn said.

"Those chickens were born in the wild. They roam the zoo everywhere," he said. "We're doing our best."

In Taiwan, officials ordered a pet-bird farm in Tainan County to kill about 300 birds, including Swinhoe's pheasants -- a once-endangered indigenous bird with a short white crest and a blue head.

The culling was ordered after test results showed some of the birds were infected with H5N2, a less dangerous strain of bird flu that has not jumped to humans.

Ten in the region have been dealing with strains of bird flu since South Korean officials reported an outbreak in December. Some Asian countries, as well as the US, are being hit with a milder bird flu strain not thought to pose a danger to people.