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Chinese Officials Says Bird-Flu Infected Pigs Report "Completely Unfounded"

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

Text of report by Liu Qiaoxiong and Zhang Sining, published by Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao website on 12 November; subheading as published

Changsha, 11 November: A few days ago, Ou Daiming, deputy- director of the Hunan Provincial Agricultural Department, reportedly revealed that the bird flu virus was found in the oral secretion of pigs in Wantang village, Xiebu town, Xiangtan county following the outbreak of the avian flu. The report was later found to be untrue.

Based on what was reported, Ta Kung Pao reporters interviewed Agricultural Minister Zhang Yintian, deputy-director Ou Daiming of Hunan's Agricultural Department, and other personnel concerned one after another. They all denied the report, saying with certainty that no pigs had been infected in Xiangtan and there was no scientific evidence to the report.

With no new bird flu cases reported, the quarantine is ready to be lifted

At his news conference on 11 November, Ou Daiming said: There have been no new cases of the epidemic in the infected area of Shebu town, Xiangtan county. People in the infected area now work and live normally, and a normal social order is maintained. Investigations by the experts groups and inspectors teams dispatched by the Ministry of Agriculture, Hunan province, and Xiangtan city indicate that the epidemic control and elimination measures are in place and the epidemic has been eradicated. The headquarters in charge of preventing and controlling the highly pathogenic avian flu now believes that the infected area has met all the requirements for lifting the quarantine and it is dispatching animal epidemic prevention and public health experts from the province, the city, and the county to the infected region to conduct on-the-spot inspection. The quarantine will be lifted after the inspection in accordance with the "Standard Procedures for Lifting Quarantine in Areas Infected by Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu".

In an exclusive interview by Ta Kung Pao reporters, Liao Lichun, director of Xiangtan county's department of animal husbandry and aquatic products and deputy head of Xiangtan's bird flu prevention and control headquarters, said: On 24 October, upon receiving the report on the death of chickens and ducks from avian flu in Xiangtan, the Ministry of Agriculture dispatched Zhang Yintian, the ministry's section chief, and Dr Liu Wei to Xiangtan county to stay with Shebu town's Heping production team to gain firsthand knowledge about the epidemic and guide work. In addition to sending samples of the dead chickens and ducks to the National Development Laboratory in Harbin for testing, they also collected blood samples from pigs in the Heping production team and the threatened areas (within a 3 km radius of Heping) and sent them to the relevant institute of the Ministry of Public Health for testing.

Liao Lichun said: On the morning of 8 November, Zhu Changguang, a section chief of the Ministry of Agriculture, arrived in Xiangtan. He came here to see if measures for culling poultry in the infected area were in place; he did not mention anything about finding out whether pigs were infected with the bird flu. Liao Lichun told reporters: To find out whether a pig is infected with the bird flu, it is necessary to collect blood samples from the pig, not its oral secretion. This is because pigs are mammal while chickens, ducks and other poultry are oviparous. The experts from the Ministry of Agriculture collected blood samples from pigs in the infected areas merely for testing purpose; it was not because they suspected that pigs had been infected with the bird flu. Besides, we have not heard anything from the Ministry of Public Health about pigs in Xiangtan being infected with the bird flu virus. Thus, Liao Lichun pointed out, the report about pigs in Xiangtan being infected by the bird flu virus is completely unfounded.

Also according to a Zhongguo Xinwen She report on 11 November, the highly pathogenic avian flu that broke out in Hunan's Xiangtan county has been quickly stamped out. There has been no new cases in the province. However, because some areas are still facing the challenging situation of being on the path of the returning migrant birds and are experiencing rainy weather with low temperature, they are very vulnerable. The province is in full battle array against the epidemic and has formulated 10 major steps to ensure that the epidemic is under control and no humans are infected.

Hunan is fully aware of the grim situation in the fight against the avian flu and is giving top priority to the extremely important work of prevention and control. It has asked its cadres at all levels to further enhance their sense of responsibility and urgency, make an all-out effort to carry out the prevention and control work, and acquire greater confidence in winning the battle.

Thanks to the implementation of the province's measures, a dragnet for curbing avian flu is now in place throughout the province.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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