Japanese egret stirs flu fears in Manila

    Japanese egret stirs flu fears in Manila
Published: Wednesday, 14 February, 2007, 09:40 AM Doha Time

MANILA: The Philippines urged people yesterday not to touch migratory birds in case they are infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus, after an egret believed to have flown from Japan died two days after being captured by a farmer.
“You can watch, but don’t capture or touch migratory birds,” Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, said by phone.
The Philippines, a known sanctuary for migratory birds, has remained free of the virus that has killed at least 166 people worldwide but the death of the egret, captured on February 5 in a village in central Sorsogon province, has sparked concern.
“There is no evidence at this time that would prove that the egret died of avian influenza,” Lim said, adding it was not wise to exhume the bird for testing.
“The egret has a leg band that indicated it came from Japan.”
Village officials in Sorsogon, 350km southeast of Manila, presented the dead bird to the mayor, who ordered its immediate burial for fear it had avian flu, a newspaper reported.
“We have no findings on the ground of a bird flu outbreak in any part of the country,” Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said in Manila before heading to neighbouring Pampanga province to open a bird flu diagnostic laboratory.
“We are bird-flu free, we are FMD (foot-and-mouth disease) free, so our thrust is to use this to its maximum potential this year,” Yap said
Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes urged the public not to touch migratory birds, to prevent any possible human infection.
“The Philippines is still bird flu-free, but the threat of the virus is ever present,” Reyes said in a statement late on Monday.
Many of the Philippines’ neighbours, including Thailand, Vietnam and China, have been infected by the disease.
Indonesia has the highest human death toll from the virus of any nation in the world, with 64 known deaths.
H5N1 remains mainly a virus of birds, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person and sweep the world, killing millions within weeks or months.
So far, most human cases can be traced to direct or indirect contact with infected birds.
HANOI: Vietnam says it has contained bird flu more than two months after the H5N1 virus resurfaced in poultry in the southern region, but officials warned yesterday that cases could emerge elsewhere in the country.
“Bird flu epidemic recurred in the Mekong delta provinces from December 6, 2006 but now it has been contained,” Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat said in a statement.
“However, the risk of recurrence nationwide is high because the demand for trading and transport of poultry and their products is increasing,” Phat said.
Last Friday, David Nabarro, UN coordinator for avian and human flu, said this season’s wave of bird flu had largely passed through the poultry trade.
Vietnam, which has recorded the second-highest number of human deaths from H5N1 after Indonesia since the virus first hit in 2003, has not had a human case since November 2005.
The Animal Health Department said yesterday that all the southern Mekong delta areas where poultry had been infected since December have passed a safe period of 21 days without a new case.
The announcement will allow the resumption of poultry trade in all the six provinces and Can Tho city.
Consumption of poultry, Vietnam’s traditional offering to ancestors, often rises significantly around the Lunar New Year festival, which this year falls between February 16 and 21.
Agriculture officials say new outbreaks could hit the Southeast Asian country in March after a ban on hatching waterfowl is lifted at the end of this month and when the effect of the most recent poultry vaccination phase expires.
The virus was found mainly in ducks. Some ducks can carry the virus without showing symptoms. They excrete the virus in their droppings as they paddle through muddy rice paddies looking for insects and leftover grain.
Mekong delta farmers are expected to accelerate the harvesting of their winter-spring rice crop from late this month and the harvest will peak in March.
A total of 166 people have died from bird flu since 2003 in 10 countries mostly in Asia, the World Health Organisation said.
-Reuters

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