Bird Flu in Asia

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2004-2-2

This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture
Report.

United Nations agencies are
calling for money and technical help for countries in Asia to stop
the spread of bird flu. The head of the U-N Food and Agriculture
Organization says farmers should be paid for their losses.

Workers in ten countries have been killing millions of chickens
and other birds. The World Health Organization says workers should
wear eye protection to avoid the virus. They should also wear what
is known as an n-ninety-five (N95) respirator mask. Health officials
say another possibility is the kind of mask that doctors wear during
operations.

Workers should also wear protective clothing that can be either
treated to kill germs or thrown away after use. And they should wash
their hands often. The W-H-O also suggests having antiviral drugs
ready in case people get sick.

Thailand on Monday reported its third death from avian influenza.
And a ninth person died in Vietnam. Among the deaths in Vietnam were
two sisters not known to have been near infected birds. The W-H-O
said "one possible explanation" was that they got the virus from
their brother.

Health officials fear that bird flu could change into a form that
spreads person-to-person worldwide. It could combine with human flu
if someone gets both viruses. Or it may pass to humans through pigs.
Yet the W-H-O says the limited number of human infections to date is
a good sign.

The United States Agriculture Department had expected world
chicken production to increase by six percent this year. The Foreign
Agriculture Service there estimated that production would be greater
than demand.

The industry in Thailand has grown quickly. Last week, Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra confirmed that the virus had entered his
country. He said Thailand had not done a good job at first. But he
said it would move quickly to control the disease. Thailand is the
fourth largest exporter of chicken.

The United States is the largest. Next are Brazil, the European
Union, Thailand and China.

China last week reported its first cases of bird flu. But the
British magazine New Scientist reported that the current outbreak in
Asia began months ago in southern China. The report suggested that
efforts to prevent the flu had caused it. China started to vaccinate
chickens after the nineteen-ninety-seven outbreak in Hong Kong.

The Foreign Ministry dismissed the report. A Chinese agricultural
official called it "purely a guess."

This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario
Ritter. This is Bob Doughty.