There is little likelihood that bird flu will break out
massively in China this year, thanks to the country's intensified
vaccination efforts, Chief Veterinary Officer Jia Youling said
yesterday.
But as vaccines might be improperly administered in courtyard
farms in some remote areas, and as migratory birds fly north to
their summer nesting grounds, avian influenza is still a threat,
said Jia, also chief of the Veterinary Bureau under the Ministry of
Agriculture.
"By last Wednesday, 4.75 billion vaccines had been used
throughout the country, and poultry in most regions are expected to
have been vaccinated by the end of this month," he told
reporters.
Talking about the country's expertise in fighting bird flu, Jia
said a combination of culling and vaccination held the key to
current achievements.
Last week, when United Nations coordinator for avian influenza
David Nabarro visited China to take stock of what the country has
done, he called for China to contribute its expertise and
information to the global bird flu fight.
China had undertaken the world's biggest vaccination campaign
and slaughtered 22.849 million poultry since 2005, according to
ministry sources.
As a result, it has stamped out all 35 outbreaks of the deadly
H5N1 virus since last year, and has not reported a single new bird
flu case in the past one and half months, Jia said.
The ministry has been active in cooperating with international
organizations for the control of bird flu, and has invited at least
30 experts from the World Health Organization and the UN Food and
Agricultural Organization to visit epidemic sites and laboratories
in China, he said.
(China Daily April 11, 2006)