SARS fears prompt rat and civet cat cull

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Mirror Jan 5 2004

 

SARS fears prompt rat and civet cat cull

 

By Nick Macfie

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - In a campaign to stop another SARS outbreak, China

will

kill thousands of civet cats and try to wipe out rats and cockroaches as

 

fears of new cases of the flu-like disease spread to Hong Kong and the

Philippines.

 

Southern China's Guangdong province, which is monitoring its first

suspected

SARS patient in months, planned to kill about 10,000 civets and close

wild-animal markets to eliminate a possible source of the disease, state

 

media said.

 

" We will start a patriotic health campaign to kill rats and cockroaches

in

order to give every place a thorough cleaning for the Lunar New Year, "

Guangdong health bureau official Feng Liuxiang was quoted by state media

as

saying on Monday. Chinese New Year begins on January 22.

 

" And we will kill all the civet cats in Guangdong markets, which number

about 10,000, " he said in a drive reminiscent of Mao Zedong's pest

eradication campaigns.

 

SARS originated in Guangdong in November 2002 and went on to kill 800

people

around the world, including about 350 in China.

 

In the Philippines, a woman suspected of contracting SARS while working

in

Hong Kong has been isolated but health officials said on Monday it was

too

early to confirm if she had the virus.

 

A spokesman for the centre for diseases control in Guangdong said a

virus

gene sample from a suspected SARS patient in the province resembled that

of

a coronavirus found in civet cats which are a delicacy in southern

China.

 

" We should begin the measures to prevent SARS beforehand and ban sales

and

eating of the animal in a bid to reduce the chance of contracting SARS

virus, " Xinhua quoted the spokesman as saying.

 

DIAGNOSIS PENDING

 

A 32-year-old television producer suspected of having SARS was admitted

to

hospital in Guangzhou in December but laboratory tests have been

inconclusive.

 

The World Health Organisation said on Monday it expected Hong Kong

laboratories to hand over their findings on the case on Monday or

Tuesday.

 

Chinese media reports also have speculated the man might have caught the

 

virus from rats but that has not been confirmed.

 

SARS emerged in Guangdong in late 2002 and travellers spread it to

nearly 30

countries. About 8,000 people were infected around the world between

November 2002 and May 2003.

 

Experts eventually identified a new kind of coronavirus as the cause of

the

flu-like disease, which triggers an unusually severe form of pneumonia.

Such

viruses cause a range of veterinary diseases but usually nothing worse

than

the common cold in people.

 

A Hong Kong newspaper said a waitress had become the second suspected

SARS

case in Guangdong but provincial officials and hospitals denied the

report.

 

The Hong Kong Standard said the waitress, in her early 20s, developed a

fever a week ago and was being kept in isolation at the Guangzhou No. 1

People's Hospital.

 

Citing unidentified reports from Guangzhou, it said the woman had

symptoms

of the flu-like illness but an announcement would not be made unless

test

results confirmed the disease.

 

" We do have a fever patient due to pneumonia, but this has no direct

connection with any suspected SARS case, " Wang Ming, deputy director of

Guangzhou City diseases prevention and control centre, told a news

conference.

 

The No. 1 People's Hospital told Reuters: " We don't have a suspected

SARS

patient because we are not a first-line SARS hospital. "

 

China's new eradication campaign brought to mind Mao Zedong's campaigns

against rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows, which he denounced as the

country's biggest four evils.

 

--

Dave Neale

Animals Asia Foundation

 

Find out more about the historic China Bear Rescue by visiting the

Animals Asia Foundation website at http://www.animalsasia.org