The first batch of pig vaccines have been sent to southwestern China, where 34 farmers have died of a swine-borne disease, state-media said yesterday.
The vaccines, enough for 350,000 hogs, were sent on Sunday from a company in Guangdong Province to Sichuan Province, the China Daily newspaper said. It said a larger shipment is due to arrive later so that up to 10 million pigs can be inoculated.
Officials have reported a total of 181 confirmed or suspected human cases in Sichuan linked to the bacteria streptococcus suis, which has swept through dozens of villages and towns.
One case of the disease has also been reported in Guangdong Province. In Hong Kong, two infections have been reported since the latest outbreak.
Health officials have not made it clear whether any of the cases are related to the Sichuan outbreak. The infected in Sichuan have been farmers who handled or butchered sick pigs and developed symptoms including nausea, fever, vomiting, and bleeding under the skin. No transmissions between people have been reported.
Fears had been building that the epidemic was a re-emergence of SARS or avian influenza. Beijing has sought to reassure the public that it was doing its best to prevent the spread of the disease.
In Ziyang, Sichuan, where human cases were first found, compulsory vaccinations for streptococcus suis in pigs will be enforced, An Weining, director of the local animal husbandry department, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
The World Health Organization warned that the outbreak could be caused by more than one bacteria.
"We cannot discount that there might be other factors here. Another bacteria, another virus, some sort of toxic substance or something happening in the environment," spokesman Bob Dietz said in Manila. "We have to keep an open mind, it's not been resolved yet."
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