Vietnam denies bird flu found in pigs
HANOI, - Vietnam denied Saturday claims that pigs had been infected with bird flu, the disease which has killed 13 people across the country and resulted in the deaths of nearly 17 million birds.
The agriculture ministry added its voice to assertions from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that there was no proof yet that pigs have spread the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
''I can officially declare that we have not found evidence of bird flu in pigs,'' said Bui Quang Anh, director of the ministry's veterinarian department.
Anh said blood samples from 179 pigs had been sent to laboratories in Hong Kong but had tested negative for H5N1.
On Friday, however, the FAO's Vietnam director Anton Rychener said the H5N1 virus had been detected in nasal swabs taken from pigs in and around the capital.
His comments were swiftly played down by the UN agency's Rome headquarters.
Peter Roeder, an FAO veterinary virologist and animal health expert, advised ''caution in the interpretation of diagnostic results'' generated by tests that do not conform to international standards.
''At this time we have seen no data that would indicate that pigs are in any way involved in spreading the current strain of H5N1 influenza virus,'' he said.
The World Health Organization has warned that H5N1 could kill millions across the globe if it combined with a human influenza virus to create a new highly contagious strain transmissible among humans.
This situation could be exacerbated if pigs are found to carry H5N1 as they are considered by experts to be an ideal ''mixing vessel'' in which viruses swap genes, become more lethal or contagious and then leap to humans.
But despite the fact that virologists have known for several years that flu viruses can pass between species, including pigs and poultry, FAO headquarters said there was no evidence this was happening in Vietnam.
It also said it would not be surprising if sampling the nasal cavities of swine in any country led to detection of influenza viruses in a small proportion of animals.
Bird flu has been detected among poultry in 56 of Vietnam's 64 provinces and cities. The agriculture ministry said the 16.6 million chickens and other birds destroyed or infected with the disease amounted to over eight percent of the communist nation's total poultry population.
The country's top leader, Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh, has urged central and provincial authorities to ensure that bird flu is contained by the end of the month, state media reported Saturday.
Disease control experts, however, say there is little chance of that happening, and say Vietnam's long term strategy must be to control the infection and then restock with vaccinated poultry.
In human terms, Vietnam is the worst affected of 10 Asian nations tackling outbreaks of bird flu.
Of the 17 people confirmed to have been infected with H5N1 in Vietnam, 13 have died. Two others have made a complete recovery, but an eight-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman remain in hospital.
Agence France Presse - February 07, 2004.
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