MSNBC 1/6/04 China plans mass killing of cats

[Guest guest]

>Tue, 6 Jan 2004 06:30:02 -0800

>

>China plans mass killing of cats

>China on Monday confirmed that a 32-year-old

>television producer in southern Guangdong has

>SARS, the country's first case since a world

>epidemic was declared over in July.

>http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3841204/

>

China begins slaughter of cats in response to SARS

Worries about contamination from killing

A civet cat looks out from its cage at a wild

animal market in Guangzhou, the capital of

China's southern province of Guangdong. Guangdong

plans to kill about 10,000 civets to eliminate

the possible source of the disease, state media

said.

 

The Associated Press

Updated: 9:45 a.m. ET Jan. 06, 2004

 

GUANGZHOU, China - Racing against a self-imposed

deadline, authorities in southern China drowned

or electrocuted the first of thousands of civet

cats Tuesday in an urgent effort to eliminate a

possible source of the SARS virus.

 

advertisementThe mass slaughter of animals seized

from wildlife markets in Guangdong province was

launched despite appeals for caution by the World

Health Organization. The U.N. agency said killing

civets might destroy clues about the source of

SARS and even help to spread the disease.

 

Authorities have ordered the deaths of some

10,000 civet cats - a weasel-like animal that is

a local delicacy - and related wildlife by

Saturday. Hundreds were killed on Tuesday and

officials were checking highway traffic for

smuggled animals.

 

Genetic tests have suggested a link between

civets and the SARS virus diagnosed in a

32-year-old television producer in Guangdong -

China's first case of the disease this season.

China's government said Tuesday the patient has

" fully recovered " and is expected to leave the

hospital on Thursday.

 

" Guangdong is entering an extraordinary period

and extraordinary measures are called for, " said

Feng Liuxiang, deputy director of the provincial

Health Bureau, quoted on the Web site of the

newspaper Guangzhou Daily.

 

Slaughter condemned

Hong Kong animal activists condemned the slaughtering of civet cats.

 

" We don't even know if the civet cat is the

direct source of SARS, " said Ng Cho-nam,

president of the Conservancy Association. " If

they decide to kill the animals, they should do

it in a humane way with minimal suffering for the

animals. Drowning is quite inhumane as it takes

about a few minutes before the animal dies. "

 

Chinese media said the civets and other animals

were being lowered in cages into vats of water. A

local official in Guangdong said some were being

electrocuted and their bodies burned.

 

Newspaper photos showed health workers dressed in

white protective suits, goggles, surgical masks

and elbow-length rubber gloves as they drowned

the animals.

 

The first case of what would be called severe

acute respiratory syndrome was recorded in the

southern province of Guangdong in November 2002.

It killed 58 people there and sickened more than

1,500.

 

Worldwide, the disease killed 774 people - most

of them in Asia - before subsiding in June.

 

Civets, which are related to the mongoose, were

cited by scientists during that outbreak as a

possible source of the virus, which was believed

to have originated in animals. China banned trade

in the animals but lifted that prohibition in

August.

 

Researchers in Hong Kong said Monday that tests

on samples from the television producer in

Guangdong showed a genetic similarity with a new

strain of the SARS virus found in civets -

suggesting another recent jump from animals to

humans.

 

On Tuesday, civets seized in Guangzhou, the

provincial capital, were electrocuted and their

bodies burned, said an employee of the city

Hygiene Supervision Bureau. He said he didn't

know how many were killed or how long the

killings would continue.

 

In Guangzhou, no one on the street was wearing a

face mask - a marked contrast to the city of

shrouded faces that was visible at the height of

its SARS outbreak last year.

 

Aggressive crackdown

Authorities in other areas were drowning civets

and other animals by lowering them in cages into

vats of water, the Guangzhou Daily said. It said

the city government of Shenzhen, which abuts Hong

Kong, ordered that " not one civet be left alive. "

 

INTERACTIVE

 

* New diseases

Where do they come from?In the city of Zhaoqing,

authorities drowned 220 civets, the newspaper

Southern Daily reported on its Web site.

Guangdong searched vehicles for banned animals

and confiscated animals from markets, restaurants

and breeding farms, said the Guangzhou Daily.

 

Authorities ordered all references to " yewei " -

or " wild taste, " the Chinese term for wild

animals as food - removed from shop signs in

Guangdong.

 

The aggressiveness of the crackdown contrasted

sharply with China's initial response to the

first SARS outbreak last year. The communist

government took weeks to acknowledge the

seriousness of the disease and was criticized for

failing to respond to foreign appeals for

information and action.

 

WHO urged calm and said China was safe - a

declaration repeated Tuesday by the state media.

 

On Monday, WHO expert Dr. Jeffrey Gilbert called

the mass slaughter a " radical step " that would

have to be done carefully to avoid contaminating

people and places. " There is a potential hazard

there, " he said.

 

Few protective masks

At Beijing's Capital Airport, SARS masks were

few. One group of children were shrouded in

protective masks adorned with pandas.

 

Hong Kong, which abuts Guangdong, and Taiwan

tightened scrutiny of people arriving from the

province.

 

The chief of Taiwan's Center for Disease Control,

Su Ih-jen, said that beginning Friday, travelers

who have visited Guangdong in the past 10 days

will have to declare whether they came into

contact with wild game, especially civet cats.

 

In Shanghai, the Chinese financial capital,

infrared scanners were set up at airports and

train stations to check travelers for fever.

 

In the Philippines, health officials said they

have isolated for observation 38 people who may

have been in contact with a Filipino woman

suspected to have contracted SARS, although none

of those being observed had shown any symptoms.

 

Test results of the 42-year-old woman, who had

developed a fever and pneumonia days after

returning from Hong Kong on Dec. 20, and her

husband, were expected Wednesday. The WHO said it

was unlikely she was suffering from SARS.

© 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast,

rewritten or redistributed.

 

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