Japan, China report fresh outbreaks of bird flu

Japan, China report fresh outbreaks of bird flu

Miho Yoshikawa
Reuters
Tokyo

Japan confirmed a new outbreak of bird flu on Tuesday, thwarting
its plans to declare an end to the scourge there, while China
confirmed two more outbreaks among poultry in a central province.

The cases came a day after hard-hit Thailand's hopes of
declaring victory in its war against the disease were dashed
after it reported fresh outbreaks of the virulent H5N1 strain in
nine provinces.

"This thing is still not under control," Hans Wagner, a senior
official with the United Nations' Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), told Reuters in Bangkok.

"We have outbreaks in new geographical regions and recurring
outbreaks where we had bird flu already. You can't expect to
clear it up with one go."

In Japan, an Agriculture Ministry official said the fresh
outbreak was reported at the southern end of the main island of
Honshu, just a day before Japan expected to declare its sole
outbreak of the virus over.

There was no immediate word on whether the deaths of seven
chickens were, like the first outbreak, caused by the H5N1 virus
that has killed at least 21 people in Thailand and Vietnam, the
official said.

China confirmed on Tuesday two outbreaks of the H5N1 strain
among poultry in central Hunan province. Fifteen of China's 31
provinces and major cities have confirmed outbreaks of the avian
influenza.

Officials had said Japan was set to declare on Wednesday an
end to its one confirmed outbreak of bird flu on a farm at the
southern end of the main island of Honshu, if there were no new
cases.

Thailand had been similarly hopeful, saying it could declare
victory by the end of this month over a virus that has led to the
slaughter of 80 million poultry in eight countries afflicted by
H5N1, which can leap between species.

But on Monday, it said the virus had been found in fighting
cocks in areas of eight provinces where mass slaughters were
carried out and in ducks in one not struck by the first wave of
infections.

The infected fighting cocks -- valuable birds hidden or moved
around by owners to avoid the cullers -- were found in former
"red zones" where the government had ordered the slaughter of
poultry within a five-km radius of an outbreak.

Deputy agriculture minister Newin Chidchob appealed to owners
of fighting cocks -- which can sell for up to US$12,000 but are
worth just $1 in compensation if culled -- to hand them over and
to neighbors to turn them in if they didn't.

"If people wake up in the morning and find fighting cocks in
the backyard of their neighbor, ones that were not there before,
they should report them to the authorities," he said.

Thailand has banned the sport, popular across much of
Southeast Asia, until the epidemic ravaging its $1 billion
chicken export industry is over.

But in Vietnam, which, like Thailand, has culled around 30
million poultry, cock fights were held openly in downtown Hanoi
parks at the weekend, even though authorities had ordered all
poultry in the capital killed.

UN health and animal bodies have warned affected countries
repeatedly not to be in a hurry to declare their epidemics over
because the virus was hard to stamp out.