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Chinese Expert Says Raising Poultry, Pigs Together Ups Bird Flu Mutation Risk

Posted on: Sunday, 13 November 2005, 06:00 CST

Text of report by Zheng Manling, published by Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao website on 12 November

Yin Zuohua, an expert from the Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences [CAS] said that more efforts should be made to monitor the diseases of domestic animals. In this way, we can avoid cross infection of the avian flu virus caused by contact between domestic fowl and domestic animals, thus preventing the epidemic situation from spreading. He said: There is a possibility for the avian flu virus to mutate. It is difficult to predict its danger.

Yin Zuohua said: The avian flu virus has existed since the appearance of birds. It can attack birds and infect mammals. Therefore, it is not strange that the avian flu virus can transmit from chickens to pigs and vice versa. He said: "In China's rural areas, it is a common practice to raise domestic fowl and domestic animals in the same farm, which leads to the possibility of spreading the virus."

Since the interspecies relation between pigs and people is rather close, if different kinds of avian flu virus are able to cross breed in the intermediate host - pigs and people - new kinds of flu virus might appear. Therefore, Yin Zuohua held that we should pay great attention to the raising of domestic animals. Efforts should be made to avoid raising domestic animals and domestic fowl such as chickens, ducks, geese and pigs in the same farm. In addition, we should strengthen the work of monitoring. Meanwhile, we should intensify immunization so as to nip troubles in the bud.

Has the avian flu virus mutated? Yin Zuohua was cautious in answering the question. He said: There is a possibility that the virus has mutated. However, further studies are needed to confirm this. At present, it is difficult to predict the danger. However, he said that there is no need to panic even if some pigs have become infected with this virus. What we should do is destroy the sick fowl and animals in timely fashion and adopt necessary measures to render them harmless. He said: "As compared with wild birds, it is relatively easy to control the epidemic diseases of livestock."

Prior to this, Jia Youling, director of the Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and a leading state veterinarian, talked about the interspecies transmission of the avian flu virus. He said: The Ministry of Agriculture has paid great attention to this issue. The ministry has urged all localities to make more efforts in monitoring clinical signs of the disease in pigs. The ministry also has asked the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory, the National Epidemiological Centre, and the Veterinary Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture to monitor and investigate the possibility of pigs being infected with the avian flu virus.

Yin Zuohua said: The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Forestry have adopted a series of prevention and control measures. So long as all the grassroots units can conscientiously carry out these measures and achieve the goal of effective mass prevention and mass control, it is possible for us to prevent the epidemic situation from spreading.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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