China Worries About Bird Flu

Admits It Is 'Weak And Vulnerable;' Vietnam Bans Live Poultry Sales

(AP)  China's vast size and its still-developing disease reporting systems have made it "weak and vulnerable" against bird flu, a top Chinese official said Thursday, while hard-hit Vietnam slapped a ban on all live poultry sales.

The avian influenza sweeping Asia has killed 15 people, and jittery governments have slaughtered some 50 million chickens and other fowl to stop the disease from spreading. Indonesia added its name to the list on Thursday, saying it would cull 10 million birds.

Meeting in Rome, U.N. experts approved limited animal vaccination Thursday in the bird flu crisis to avoid unnecessary mass culling -- a measure Asian countries fear could devastate their livestock.

Ending a two-day conference, experts said cautious use of vaccination could create buffer zones around already infected areas to prevent the disease spreading further.

"The mass culling of flocks outside of infected sites in reaction to outbreaks might therefore be largely avoided and major damage to the livelihoods of rural households and national economies averted," said a joint statement by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health.

Vietnam — where 10 people have died — ordered a nationwide ban on sales of all live chickens and poultry products. Officials said the order was to contain the disease, but did not elaborate.

It was not clear whether authorities feared people might catch bird flu by eating infected meat. The World Health Organization says there is no evidence yet that the virus is spreading to people who eat properly cleaned and cooked poultry products. But countries worldwide, including the United States, have imposed import bans on poultry from nations affected with bird flu.

Thailand is the only other country where the virus has jumped to humans, with five deaths.

China has confirmed five outbreaks of the disease and reported 18 suspected ones, but it has not reported any human cases. Chinese officials again rejected rumors circulating in recent days of human cases, saying they were groundless and that there was no attempt at a cover-up.

Chinese officials faced similar accusations last year during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. The Beijing government admitted it had the disease after weeks of denial.

"I can say in a responsible way that there is no human (bird flu) infection in China," Vice Health Minister Wang Longde said at a news conference of government officials.

At the same presser, Vice Agriculture Minister Liu Jian vowed stringent measures to stop the virus before it spreads to people. But he acknowledged that "some parts of our animal disease-prevention system are weak and vulnerable, and the public has limited knowledge about the disease and ways to prevent it."

"The poultry population in China is quite big, and production methods are quite diverse. That has brought us some difficulties in controlling this epidemic," he said. "It remains an arduous task for China."

Thailand reported two new suspected cases: a 2-year-old boy from northeastern Khon Kaen province and a 67-year-old man from central Chainat province, Thai officials said. Thailand has 19 suspected cases in all, nine of whom have died.

Bird flu has now been found in 40 of Thailand's 76 provinces and authorities said Thursday that nearly 26 million chickens have been culled.

The WHO is working to develop a human vaccine against bird flu, but an animal vaccine against a closely related strain of the disease already exists. Some farmers have used it to protect against other forms of bird flu and experts believe it could give chickens partial protection from the deadly virus now afflicting farms in 10 Asian nations.