China rushes in vaccine after deadly bird flu found
China has rushed more than three million doses of bird flu vaccine to a remote western province after migratory birds were found dead from the H5N1 strain which can be fatal to humans, state media said on Monday.
Poultry across Qinghai province, neighbouring Tibet and Xinjiang, had become the “target of a compulsory vaccination campaign”, the China Daily newspaper said.
Scientists had proved that the virus killed scores of geese in Qinghai in early May, media said at the weekend, the first report of H5N1 detected in China since last year.
There had been no reports of the virus spreading to humans or domestic fowl in Qinghai, the Beijing News said. The area where the dead geese were found had been sealed off for 10 days.
But experts said domestic poultry could also be at risk.
“There is a significant possibility of that, given the fact that wild birds quite often use the same water sources and feeding sources as domestic ducks or domestic geese,” said Malik Peiris, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong.
“One has to take this risk seriously.”
The H5N1 strain has killed 37 Vietnamese, 12 Thais and four Cambodians since it swept across large parts of Asia in late 2003.
The World Health Organisation said last week the spate of human bird flu cases in Vietnam this year suggested the deadly form of the virus might be mutating in ways that are making it more capable of being passed between humans.
China has been on high alert against bird flu after outbreaks in North Korea and Southeast Asia, which prompted it to tighten quarantine controls at its borders.
But Qinghai is far from either border and there was no immediate explanation as to how wild geese there became infected.
“I think it’s sensible to take this outbreak in wild birds quite seriously and enhance surveillance in domestic poultry,” Peiris said.
“Clearly it shows this virus is still causing problems in this region.”
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