China's Chief Veterinary: Human infection of bird flu has no necessary link with animal cases

Mr. Zhou (2nd L. front) leaves the Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, Feb. 6, 2009. Zhou was found infected with bird flu on Jan. 15, he recovered from the illness after 23-day treatment and left the hospital on Feb. 6.(Chinese media/Yang Ying)
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BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Chinese media) -- China's Chief Veterinary

said on Saturday that the human cases of bird flu did not necessarily mean there

would be an outbreak among poultry, in response to the international expert's

doubt.

The human cases and the animal cases were not

directly interlinked, which was quite common in the world. So far, 405 human

cases from 15 countries have been reported, among which many occurred without

the outbreak among animals. The infection sources is not clear yet, Yu Kangzhen,

Chief Veterinary of the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) told Chinese media in an

interview.

The infection rate among high-risk group including

those who feed, kill and sell the poultry was not very high as a matter of fact,

and no such cases were reported in China, Yu said.

There is still much unchartered water in the bird flu

study, which needs more scientific exploration by international researchers, he

said.

Eight human cases have been reported in seven

provinces in China since January. But no epidemic outbreak of the H5N1 strain of

avian influenza have been found in the seven provinces, based on the researches

of the overall epidemiological situation and investigations still continuing, he

told Chinese media.

"The human cases show the virus must be circulating

among birds," Vincent Martin, a senior technical advisor on avian flu for the

UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Wednesday, indicating that it

was not normal that there had been no confirmation or reports of outbreaks in

poultry.

Such doubts intensified as poultry death was reported

in Hong Kong, raising fears that the bordering Guangdong Province would be

affected.

Yu said the veterinary department in Guangdong had

carried out epidemiological inspection and detected no such cases. Poultry in

the province were all well-vaccinated as of November 2008, according to the MOA.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to

the anti-bird flu efforts. Local government are urged to report to the MOA

within 24 hours after infection is defected, Yu said.

Hundreds of the monitoring centers are established

across the nation to keep close watch on the outbreak of the deadly virus.