China strives to wipe out bird flu by 2015
Source: Reuters
BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - China will spend more than 1 billion dollars over the next two years in a bid to stamp out animal-borne epidemics such as bird flu which it hopes to "eradicate" by 2015, state media said on Wednesday. China has reported a total of 22 human cases of bird flu, including 14 fatalities, since 2003 and, with the world's largest poultry population and millions of backyard birds roaming free, it is seen as a centre in the fight against the virus. "The authorities hope to control or even eradicate severe animal disease like bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease by 2015," the China Daily said. Concern about bird flu has spread anew across Asia in recent days, with an Indonesian hospital struggling to cope with suspected human cases this week, and the virus spreading among flocks in Vietnam and flaring again in Thailand. China would set up a national animal epidemic-prevention system, expand supervision and train more vets as part of a plan issued by five government departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission and the agriculture ministry, the China Daily said. "As a result of the rapid expansion of China's poultry and livestock breeding industry (and) the growing trade in animal products, several severe animal diseases have begun to demonstrate large-scale prevalence," the China Daily quoted the plan as saying. "The country's weak and inadequate epidemic-prevention system has become a bottleneck that is stunting the development of the livestock breeding industry." Deaths from animal diseases led to direct economic losses last year of nearly 40 billion yuan ($5.13 billion), the plan said. It said the 2004 bird-flu epidemic had cost farmers 8 billion yuan, trimmed companies' sales by 20 billion yuan and taken away millions of jobs. Although China is a leading producer of meat products, with more than 100 million people working in livestock breeding, only 1 percent of livestock and less than 5 percent of aquatic products were exported, the paper said. The World Bank reported in June that, out of $1.9 billion pledged by nations and organisations in the fight against bird flu, only $286 million had been spent. Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule 10 years ago, confirmed on Wednesday that a bird of prey found dead in the city carried the H5N1 virus, the second such case this month. Unlike bird flu, foot-and-mouth disease does not affect humans and outbreaks are relatively easy to control, but the contagious disease can have a serious impact on the livestock industry by reducing meat and milk production.
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