Pigs test positive for bird flu: UN

[george]

U.N.: Vietnam Pigs Test for Bird Flu Virus

HANOI, Vietnam - Tests conducted on pigs in Vietnam have been positive for the bird flu virus infecting millions of poultry, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization said Friday.

Anton Rychener, Hanoi representative for the U.N. agency, said the pigs were tested recently in and around Hanoi. He did not specify how many were sampled and which lab did the testing.

Test results on blood samples taken from the pigs have not been completed, Rychener said.

"Nasal swabs taken from pigs have been positive for H5N1," Rychener said. "It continues to be under investigation and is of concern. We'll be bringing in an expert."

Rychener's comments came after Vietnamese officials said Thursday that tests done on samples taken from 179 pigs by Hong Kong laboratories showed they did not have the bird flu.

"The tests of the pig samples came in negative for H5N1 strain of the bird flu," said Nguyen Ngoc Nhien, deputy director of the Institute for Animal Health in Hanoi.

A total of 179 samples taken from pigs in bird flu-affected areas in the northern provinces of Ha Tay and Thai Binh, along with Haiphong city, were sent to World Health Organization's labs in Hong Kong last week, he said.

So far, officials believe that the bird flu is contracted through direct contact with infected birds. There has been little evidence of human to human transmission, though one case in Vietnam is under investigation.

Health officials have warned that if the bird flu virus combines with a human influenza virus, the result could create a more lethal strain that can be passed from human to human.

Experts have said it's possible that the virus has jumped to humans through another mammal, such as pigs.

--AP 2004-02-06

[francois]

hi'

if this is going on ... we are in a real serious danger!

only one solution, kill them all, pigs, chickens, others ..as familiar pets,

pigeons, parrots ..etc

can we wait to see new red-zones coming out every week?

could the Thai governement be more realistic that what we see?

just a wish ...

that we can be cautious and not fool, being more aware of possible pandemy.

it seems to me that we are far too much confident

francois

[george]

Thai Shares End -3.2% As Bird Flu Found In Vietnam Pigs

BANGKOK (Dow Jones)--Thai shares snapped a three-day winning streak Friday, ending 3.2% lower, after bird flu concerns were heightened by evidence of the virus in Vietnam's pigs, traders said.

"The market is rather sensitive to news, as the bird-flu situation is still fluid. It reacted quite strongly to the new evidence in Vietnam," said Thanarat Isaragult, an analyst at Bualuang Securities.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index closed down 23.40 points at 711.15, having gained more than 10% during the past three sessions.

Pigs in Vietnam have tested positive for the bird flu virus that has infected poultry across Asia and killed 18 people, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization confirmed Friday.

"Nasal swabs taken from pigs have been positive for H5N1," said Anton Rychener, Hanoi representative for the U.N. agency. "It continues to be under investigation and is of concern. We'll be bringing in an expert

[george]

Pigs get all clear as bird flu toll hits 18

HANOI (Reuters) - Two more people have died in Vietnam of bird flu, taking Asia's death toll to 18, but U.N. agencies have dismissed

earlier reports that the virus had spread to pigs.

A day after China said bird flu had spread to more provinces and U.N. agencies chided Asian countries for being slow to sound the

alarm, a Food and Agriculture Organisation official in Vietnam said on Friday three or four pigs had tested positive for the virus.

That was a worrying development since the immune system of pigs is similar to that of humans but a FAO scientist in Rome said the

tests referred to were not up to standard.

"The news that he reported was based we believe on studies with an experimental test," Peter Roeder, a FAO animal health expert,

told Reuters.

Robert Webster, a World Health Organisation animal flu expert, added: "Right now there is no justification for saying there is H5N1

virus infection in pigs in Vietnam."

Scientists say pigs are ideal vessels for mixing genes from the bird flu pathogen and the human influenza virus.

The WHO has said this could result in the emergence of a new subtype of virus for which humans would have no immunity.

"If there was a very widespread infection in pigs, then that would be a great concern that a pandemic strain might develop from it,"

Jacqueline Katz, a flu expert at the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said last week.

The world animal health body OIE said it would not be surprised if pigs in Asia tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus.

"It would not be a surprise because the potential susceptibility of pigs to avian influenza virus is well known," the Paris-based OIE said.

The OIE said it recommended that countries with avian flu closely monitor pigs which were in contact with infected birds and cull those

in which the presence of the virus was confirmed.

NARROWING THE ODDS

Experts say the possibility of a new strain sweeping through a human population with no immunity to it is remote, but that each

outbreak narrows the odds a little.

That is one reason why the FAO and the World Health Organisation have been urging affected countries to act swiftly to stamp out the

H5N1 virus, preferably by slaughtering poultry within three km (two miles) of an outbreak.

Transmission to hogs is a constant worry, especially in countries like Vietnam and China where poultry, pigs and people often live in

close proximity.

South Korea said it was even considering evacuating people from bird flu zones to try to contain the virus.

China, home to the world's biggest poultry population and where the virus may have spread to 13 of 31 provinces, says it faces a tough

fight to defeat the disease.

One of those provinces is Guangdong, where the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, another virus that crossed the species barrier

from animals to humans, originated before spreading to 30 countries and killing nearly 800 people last year.

China, widely criticised for covering up the SARS epidemic for several months, has promised openness in its battle against the H5N1

virus, but says parts of its animal disease prevention system are "weak and vulnerable".

Local officials have been ordered to report any suspected human case immediately. None has been found so far.

Vietnam's death toll rose to 13 after a six-year-old girl and a 24-year-old man died from bird flu in Ho Chi Minh City. Five people have

also died of the disease in Thailand, taking the Asian human toll to 18.

World health bodies meeting in Rome said in a joint statement on Thursday the chance the virus could spread to other countries,

"including those in distant regions, is likely to remain high" unless the right methods were used to stamp it out.

The virus is thought to be spread by migratory birds.

Fifty million birds had been culled in Asia so far and poultry restocking alone would cost some $150 million, said Louise Fresco,

assistant director-general of the FAO.

Thailand, the world's fourth biggest chicken exporter which has slaughtered 26 million poultry, is confident it is wiping out the virus.

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said Thailand had only one "red zone" left -- the five-km (three-mile) area around a

confirmed outbreak within which the government orders the slaughter of all poultry.

[george]

UN says no evidence of bird flu in Vietnam pigs

(Adds detail, background)

ROME, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations' food body said on Friday that there was no evidence of avian flu in pigs, dismissing an earlier report from U.N. representatives in Vietnam that had raised fears of an escalating crisis.

A Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) spokesman in Hanoi had earlier said that the bird flu virus had been found in the nasal cavities of several Vietnamese pigs, but a FAO scientist in Rome said the tests he had referred to were not up to standard.

"The news that he reported was based, we believe, on studies with an experimental test. It is essential that we base analyses on sound science," Peter Roeder, a FAO animal health expert told Reuters.

He said the tests did not conform to the standards established by world animal health body OIE, which said on Friday it would not be surprised if pigs in Asia tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Roeder said the FAO was investigating the exact origin of the earlier report, a potentially dynamic development in the avian flu crisis which has killed millions of poultry and 16 people.

Pigs have a similar immune system to humans and suffer from a wide variety of diseases that also infect people.

FAO said it would not be surprising if sampling the nasal cavities of swine in any country led to the detection of influenza viruses in a small portion of animals but that at this stage nothing had been proven.

"Right now there is no justification for saying there is H5N1 virus infection in pigs in Vietnam," said Robert Webster, World Health Organisation animal flu expert.

[Axel]

George, don't do this to me! Tonight, on the way home and sober, I saw two pigs flying past me. Not only that, they have been faster.