China speeds up SARS Civet Cull

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3371219.stm

 

China speeds up Sars civet cull

 

China has pledged to complete by Saturday the slaughter of animals

suspected of spreading the Sars virus.

The government has started killing thousands of civets in the southern

province of Guangdong.

 

Researchers in Hong Kong have linked the virus carried by China's latest

Sars patient to a strain found in the cat-like animals.

 

But the World Health Organization criticised the cull, saying there is

no firm evidence that civets carry Sars.

 

The slaughter has begun, with the animals being drowned in disinfectant

and then incinerated. " If we used knives to kill them, the blood would

spread the disease, " a Guangdong official told Reuters news agency.

 

An estimated 10,000 civets in Guangdong are due be disposed of in this

way by Saturday. Civets are small, weasel-like animals considered a

delicacy in China's Guangdong province.

 

The BBC's Louisa Lim in Beijing says that in contrast to the last

outbreak more than a year ago, there has been little sense of panic.

 

People are generally confident that the government has the situation

under control, our correspondent says.

The news came as tests confirmed China's first case of Sars (Severe

Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in six months.

 

But the WHO said the slaughter was radical and that the man's case

remains an isolated one which does not constitute a public health

emergency. It also warned that not enough research had been conducted

into possible links between the civet cat and Sars.

 

" At this point in time... without seeing that data, there is no

conclusive evidence that civets are the animals that carry the Sars

virus, " WHO Sars team leader Judy Hall told the BBC.

 

Many researchers believe the strain of Sars which killed hundreds of

people last year in China and across the globe could have jumped species

to humans from an animal like the civet.

 

Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory

Diseases, said on Monday that the virus in the latest case appeared to

be slightly different to that which originated in Guangdong in November

2002. The researchers added that they had found a virus very similar to

this new strain in civet cats, suggesting it had jumped from the animals

to humans.

 

Mr Zhong said the suspected Sars carrier - a male 32-year-old television

producer - had claimed not to have eaten any wild animals before he fell

ill, but did admit to touching at least one rat.

 

The man is currently in hospital in the city of Guangzhou in the

Guangdong province. An additional 25 people who had contact with the

patient have been isolated, but none appears to be infected.

 

Sars killed 349 people on China's mainland during the previous global

outbreak.

 

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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