Vietnam pigs may have bird flu

[Guest guest]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3465067.stm

 

Last Updated: Friday, 6 February, 2004, 11:08 GMT

 

Vietnam pigs may have bird flu

 

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird

flu has been detected in pigs in

Vietnam, according to UN

preliminary tests.

 

Anton Rychener of the UN Food and

Agriculture Organization said the

tests were carried out recently in

and around Hanoi but had yet to be

confirmed.

 

Experts say bird flu can jump to

humans through pigs, or other

mammals, but so far there has been

no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

 

Two more people died from the outbreak, raising the

death toll to 18.

 

The latest victims were a six-year-old girl and a

24-year-old man who

died in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City, medical

officials said.

 

Tens of millions of chickens have already died or been

slaughtered in 10

Asian countries, but the World Health Organization

(WHO) has warned

the outbreak was far from being under control.

 

'Inconclusive evidence'

 

" The H5N1 virus was in the nasal cavities of the pigs, "

Mr Rychener,

Hanoi representative of the FAO said, without

specifying how many

animals had been tested.

 

" It continues to be under investigation and is of

concern, " he said.

 

Mr Rychener said that blood tests on the pigs had been

sent to Hong

Kong and results were not yet returned.

 

A WHO spokesman in Geneva, Dick Thompson, said the

Vietnam report

was " too preliminary to be alarmed " .

 

" We do not have conclusive evidence that pigs are

infected, " Mr

Thompson was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

 

Health experts say that it is possible that the bird

flu virus can jump to

humans through some mammals, who have been implicated

in human

epidemics in the past.

 

--

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