MSNBC/Associated Press 1/9/04: China on the hunt for civet cats

[Guest guest]

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

 

China on the hunt for civet cats

Fines for merchants hiding animals linked to SARS

 

The Associated Press

Updated: 10:55 a.m. ET Jan. 09, 2004

 

GUANGZHOU, China - Authorities in southern China

on Friday threatened fines of up to $12,000 for

merchants who try to hide civet cats, a day ahead

of the deadline to slaughter thousands of the

animals because of fears they carry a virus

linked to SARS.

 

Guangdong province, with a second suspected SARS

case announced Thursday, intensified its campaign

to clean streets and wipe out civets plus other

potential carriers that have been labeled the

" four dangers " - rats, roaches, flies and

mosquitoes.

 

Civets, a local delicacy, were ordered seized

from markets and slaughtered after tests

suggested a link between them and China's first

SARS case of the season, a 32-year-old television

producer.

 

Caution urged

A five-member World Health Organization team was

in Guangzhou on Friday to help Chinese experts

try to figure out how the man was exposed to the

virus. WHO officials have urged caution with the

civet slaughter, saying it could destroy medical

clues or expose those involved in the cull to

SARS.

 

The WHO experts haven't joined the investigation

into the second suspected case, team spokesman

Roy Wadia said, adding that experts from the two

sides were meeting Friday to figure out how to

proceed.

 

Health workers have been drowning, electrocuting

and incinerating civet cats by the thousands.

 

The order to kill civets set a deadline of

Saturday and later was expanded to include

badgers, racoon dogs and some other wildlife

eaten in Guangzhou.

 

After Saturday, " any business person caught

hiding civets will be fined between 10,000 and

100,000 yuan ($1,200 to $12,000), " said the

newspaper Guangzhou Daily.

 

Though Guangzhou is a major business center and

one of China's most prosperous areas, such fines

are severe in a society where annual urban

incomes average just $700 per person.

 

Merchants also have an incentive to hide civets.

The animals can fetch some $10 per pound.

 

Guangzhou newspapers ran front-page pictures of

Mayor Zhang Guangning, wearing bright red gloves,

scooping rat poison from red buckets onto a city

sidewalk.

 

Last year, Guangdong was labeled the birthplace

of severe acute respiratory syndrome when the

first case was detected there in November. The

disease killed 58 people in the province and

spread worldwide, claiming 774 lives before

subsiding in July.

 

On Thursday, a 20-year-old waitress was declared

China's second-suspected SARS case. She was

isolated in the Guangzhou No. 8 People's Hospital

and her status was unchanged, said a spokesman

for the provincial health bureau. He refused to

give his name.

 

The announcement of her case came just as China's

first SARS case, the television producer, left

the same Guangzhou hospital after being

pronounced recovered.

 

Hospital president Tang Xiaoping said that he

couldn't confirm reports that the waitress worked

at a restaurant that served wild game. Scientists

say the virus might have begun in wild animals,

then jumped to humans.

 

" Whether she handled animals, I'm not clear, " Tang told reporters.

 

Fever checks

China's central government, trying to prevent a

new epidemic, ordered temperature checks on

passengers at railway stations across the

country. Those with a fever over 100.5 degrees

were forbidden to board trains.

 

INTERACTIVE

* New diseases

Where do they come from?In Shanghai, the city's

railway station opened a special arrival channel

to check the temperatures of passengers arriving

aboard trains from Guangzhou, the Shanghai Youth

Daily reported Friday.

 

The city also has launched a wide-ranging

" destroy four pests, " campaign targeting rats and

bugs in older housing communities. Poisoned

apples, watermelon seeds, roast duck and other

snacks have been placed in food shops,

restaurants and convenience stores to lure

rodents to their demises, it said.

 

In Guangzhou, red banners fluttering in the

streets called for better cleanliness. In

language that echoed China's political campaigns

of the 1950s, they declared: " Everybody work

together. Do more to improve hygiene. Exterminate

the four dangers. Lift the level of public

health. "

 

But some were dismayed at the mass slaughter of

civets before experts say definitely whether the

virus came from them.

 

" There is only one SARS case in Guangzhou city,

so why must there be such a heavy reaction that

affects the whole population? " said Sun Jianwu,

owner of a chain of pet supply stores. He decried

government efforts to kill civets and rats as

" unscientific " measures.

 

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast,

rewritten or redistributed.

--