2004-2-16
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture
Report.
Chicken farmers in the northeastern United States are dealing
with a form of bird flu different from the virus in Asia. Officials
say it is the form H7. The H7 virus does not have a history of
infecting people. But it does kill chickens, and it spreads easily.
The virus was first discovered on a farm in Delaware that
provided live chickens to a market in New York City. States
officials ordered that farm and another one to destroy thousands of
chickens. Officials also banned the sales of live chickens. After
Delaware, cases were reported in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The United States is the biggest producer and exporter of
chicken. The American share of the export market in two-thousand-one
was valued at nearly two-thousand-million dollars. That year,
eighteen-percent of all American chicken production was exported.
Because of the H7 outbreak, a number of nations have barred
imports of American chicken. Some including Russia barred imports
only from the affected areas. Russia is the biggest importer of
American chicken products.
Others ordered bans on chicken from anywhere in the United
States. These countries included China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore
and South Korea. The United States Agriculture Department says it
does not believe the import bans will last long.
In Asia, officials have been working to control the spread of the
avian influenza virus known as H5N1. That virus has killed millions
of chickens in several countries. The number of human deaths reached
twenty last week in Vietnam and Thailand.
The bird flu outbreak in Asia has caused economic damage. The
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says it will aid
some of the countries affected. The FAO said it would provide
one-point-six million dollars to Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan and
Vietnam.
The agency also joined the World Health Organization in urging
measures to fight bird flu. One of these measures is the use of
vaccine medicine to help chickens resist the virus.
Scientists are developing a human vaccine in case the virus takes
a form that spreads easily from person to person. Some people have
worried that pigs may also become infected and give the virus to
humans. However, the Food and Agriculture Organization says it has
found no evidence that the H5N1 virus can infect pigs.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario
Ritter. This is Steve Ember.