Hong Kong chicken flu slaughter failed

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Hong Kong chicken flu slaughter " failed "

 

13:09 19 April 02

 

NewScientist.com news service

 

Genetic tests on the latest strain of avian flu to hit

Hong Kong show it is based on the strain that caused a

devastating outbreak in 2001. This shows that last

year's attempt to eradicate the virus by slaughtering

the entire chicken population of over a million

failed, say Chinese scientists.

 

In 1997, an influenza strain that infected Hong Kong

chickens jumped the species barrier, killing six of

the 18 people it infected. Scientists fear that the

region's farms and live fowl markets could be the

cauldron in which a virus mutates into a form capable

of triggering the next flu pandemic.

 

Guan Yi, a microbiologist at the University of Hong

Kong says all live chicken farms in the region should

be closed and the importation of live chickens from

mainland China banned, to try to ensure this does not

happen.

 

" I believe we have to get rid of the farms, and the

poultry markets, and the import of fresh chickens, " he

told China Daily.

 

" Ignorant act "

 

The genetic tests on the strains that hit in 2001 and

in February 2002 were conducted at St Jude's

Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, a

centre for research on animal influenza. They revealed

that the 2002 H5N1 genotype was more complex than that

of the 2001 strain, but it was " based on last year's

virus " , Guan said.

 

In 2001, a slaughter of the entire population of more

than one million chickens was attempted, to try to

wipe out the virus. In February 2002, almost 900,000

chickens were killed.

 

A new outbreak of avian flu is currently spreading in

Hong Kong, but this strain has not yet been analysed.

Officials have again begun killing chickens, and

hundreds of thousands more are being inoculated.

 

There is strong local opposition to Guan's calls for a

closure of all chicken farms and market, China Daily

reports. " Avian influenza is just like any human flu -

you just cannot get rid of it. However, it does not

make sense to get rid of the poultry industry to get

rid of the bird flu. That would be an ignorant act, "

said Peter Wong Chun-kow, Hong Kong president of the

World's Poultry Science Association.

 

Emma Young

 

This story is from NewScientist.com's news service -

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