Extreme Bird Flu Measures In Asia

(CBS/AP)  Asian countries announced extreme measures Tuesday in their fight against bird flu, with China vowing to vaccinate its entire poultry stock of 14 billion birds and Vietnam launching an unprecedented campaign to purge its two largest cities of poultry to slow the spread of the disease.

"China is in the process of vaccinating all the poultry in the country," said Jia Youling, the Agriculture Ministry's chief veterinary officer.

He said the government will pay all fees involved, but he did not provide additional details during an online question-and-answer session.

China has more than 14 billion farm poultry, accounting for nearly 21 percent of the world's total.

It was unclear if the birds were being vaccinated against the virulent H5N1 strain that has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia and killed at least 64 people since 2003.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has encouraged countries to vaccinate birds while practicing other control methods, such as mass slaughtering and the controlled movement of poultry in and around infected areas. Officials, however, have warned against possible counterfeit vaccines that were found circulating in another part of the country.

In related developments:

The virulent H5N1 strain of avian flu detected at a quarantine center in Britain infected only one species of bird imported from Taiwan, the government said Tuesday.

The Japanese government will shut down schools, ban large gatherings and declare a state of emergency if the country is hit by a severe flu epidemic, the government said in an action plan announced Monday. Tokyo will also stockpile antiviral drugs and help chicken farmers control bird flu in their flocks, it said.

In Thailand, a 1 1/2-year-old boy became the 21st person to catch the H5N1 bird flu virus, but he was recovering in a hospital, a senior health ministry official said. The boy lived in a house in Minburi, where three fighting cocks and a chicken also lived.

Kuwait detected two cases of bird flu in birds, a senior official said Thursday. Tests found the birds were infected with the H5 flu strain.The Food and Agriculture Organization said more testing of Kuwait's bird flu cases was needed.

The World Health Organization has estimated that developing vaccines and boosting production of antivirals to fight a flu pandemic will cost about $500 million over the next three to four years.

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