China Tuesday insisted that although a highly lethal strain of the bird flu virus had been found in pigs, it did not constitute an epidemic.
The H5N1 strain extracted from swine in the southeastern province of Fujian last year was "extremely small" and no mutation of the virus into a form more dangerous to humans had been observed, the state-run Beijing Times said.
The report was the latest cautious official attempt at clarification following the surprise announcement by a respected scientist last week that H5N1 had been detected in pigs in 2003 for the first time ever.
The scientist, national bird flu laboratory director Chen Hualan, was quoted by the paper as playing down the possible implications of the discovery.
"Actually, the amount of bird flu virus isolated by our laboratory from pigs in Fujian was extremely small," she told the paper, emerging from days of silence after talking to journalists in Beijing last week.
"The probability of isolating H5N1 virus from pigs was less than one in a thousand," she said.
On Friday Chen had said H5N1, which has killed 27 people in Asia this year, was discovered in pigs both in 2003 and 2004. She called it "a rather dangerous signal in terms of public health."
Researchers fear that infection among pigs could be the first step in a mutation of the virus into a form that could spread more easily to humans. Until now H5N1 had been found only in poultry.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in charge of UN communications with the agriculture ministry, was eager to get as much information as possible.
"This is a big concern and that's why we are keeping in close contact with the ministry of agriculture," Sun Yinhong, a Beijing-based program officer for the FAO, told reporters.
Shortly after Chen's announcement, the FAO asked the agriculture ministry how many pigs were found to carry the virus, where and how.
This series of specific questions was met with a very general answer to the effect that bird flu had not been discovered in pigs, according to Sun.
On Monday the agriculture ministry publicly confirmed for the first time that the deadly strain of bird flu was found in pigs last year.
The Beijing Times quoted an unnamed agriculture ministry official as saying the smattering of H5N1 found in pigs so far was far from being epidemic in proportion.
"The discovery or isolation of virus in pigs does not mean that they are actually infected, and it certainly does not mean that a bird flu epidemic has broken out in the area," the official said.
The paper only addressed the occurrence of bird flu in pigs in 2003, and made no mention of Chen's remark last week that it had reemerged in swine this year too. Chen hung up the phone when contacted Tuesday.
The agriculture ministry, which declined repeated requests for comment Monday and Tuesday, failed to provide detailed clarification. Academic papers published in little-known journals gave some hints of exactly what was discovered in China last year.
H5N1 was detected in pigs at four different locations near China's east coast in April 2003, according to a four-page article in the May issue of the Chinese Journal of Veterinary Science.
"If bird flu enters into pigs and, once inside their bodies, acquires the ability to transmit among mammals and then enters into the human population, it will not just mean a few deaths or a few dozen deaths," the authors wrote.
"If there is no technological or preventive preparation, it would be dreadful to contemplate!" they added, departing from the normally disinterested prose of academic literature.
POLL POSITION: Democrats criticized the timing of the raid, saying that the US justice department historically avoids public investigations within 60 days of an election Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal investigation that brings renewed focus to the frequent target of White House derision in the final weeks of her re-election bid. The search of the Minnesota congresswoman’s home so close to next month’s midterm contests that would determine control of the US House and the Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress, who raised questions about the timing given longstanding US Department of Justice (DOJ) protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an
As shark attack survivor Mel Ismail fought the predator that severed his leg, he noticed something odd. “I saw its eye ... a big black eye,” Ismail said. “But it was winking back at me — I was trying to get my fingers in its eye and just pushing its eye as I was being dragged.” When the shark swam off, he managed to struggle back to shore, the surfer and professional firefighter said in an Australian Broadcasting Corp interview broadcast on Thursday. He was surfing at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton on Australia’s west coast when he was attacked on Sept. 14. He
A Rhode Island pumpkin grower appears to have broken the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, with his giant squash topping the record by nearly 136kg. Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed his pumpkin on Saturday at a contest in New England and is waiting for the Guinness World Records to confirm he smashed the record, set about a week earlier by a grower in England. Wallace said he has been in contact with Guinness officials who say his record is on track to be verified. “It’s truly massive, it was a pleasure to grow,” Wallace said on Monday. Guinness World Records lists
BUILDUP: The report comes as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi boosts defense spending in the face of China’s military expansion and the North Korean threat French defence contractor Thales will establish a maintenance and operational support base in Japan in what is seen as the first such move by a foreign firm in the country, a report said yesterday. Thales chairman and CEO Patrice Caine told the Nikkei business daily that the base “will mark a milestone toward Thales’ long-term engagement in Japan.” It is believed to be the first time a foreign defense company has established a dedicated base in Japan for the maintenance and operation of Japanese defense equipment, the Nikkei said. It added that Thales might also expand its Japan-based business to
RSS