Experts hold crisis meeting as bird flu spreads to China

BANGKOK - The 10 Asian countries hit by the rapid spread of bird flu are promising to fight it together.

Details of what they agreed were sparse as their task loomed even larger now the lethal virus -- which has killed at least eight people and threatens to develop into an epidemic worse than Sars -- has struck the vast poultry industry in the world's most populous country of China.

But the World Health Organisation said the one-day meeting in Bangkok, also attended by European Union and US officials, was a good start.

"This meeting is the beginning of the process. Quite clearly they're going to start to work together now," said WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley, who described some delegates as clearly shaken by the rapid onslaught of the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao reflected the urgency displayed by the WHO which, with two other international organisations, has called for money and expertise to launch an all-out war on the bird flu virus.

"Any epidemic must be eradicated as soon as it occurs to prevent it from spreading," the Chinese leaders were quoted by state television as saying. "Such an epidemic must be contained in one spot and cut off to prevent it from infecting humans."

China is slaughtering poultry around three farms in three regions where bird flu was confirmed on Tuesday, the latest of the quick fire eruptions from Pakistan to Japan across Asia which the WHO says has no historical precedent.

The Bangkok statement said that was the right thing to do and "rapid culling" was the preferred solution to an outbreak, something Indonesia said it cannot do because it doesn't have the money to compensate farmers.

But Pakistan fell into line with experts' recommendations and most other countries hit by the virus and ordered a cull of all chickens affected by the flu in its port city of Karachi.

The Bangkok statement promised a regional animal survey system to be plugged into the health network to make it easier to tackle diseases such as bird flu and Sars which leap the species barrier.

"Containment requires closer cooperation among governments, communities and businesses," it said.

The great fear is that the H5N1 avian flu virus might mate with human influenza and unleash a pandemic among people with no immunity to it.

So far, there is no evidence of transmission between people. Infected humans are believed to have caught the virus directly from birds. But experts say no matter how remote the possibility, every outbreak shortens the odds a little.

A Hong Kong scientist added to the fears by saying the unusually large number of ducks dying from bird flu in southern China indicated the bug has become more virulent, which would put more people at risk of contracting it.

"H5 viruses are generally less fatal to ducks, so it is uncommon for so many ducks to die. This means this particular H5N1 strain has become more virulent," said virologist Leo Poon from the University of Hong Kong.

"This means it can cause extensive deaths in poultry and this may in turn increase the chance of more people contracting it."

New Scientist magazine quoted experts as saying an "official cover-up and questionable farming practices" allowed the birdflu outbreak to turn into an epidemic.

The magazine cited the mass slaughter of chickens in Hong Kong in 1997 when the H5N1 bird flu killed six people. To protect its poultry Chinese producers used an inactivated H5N1 virus after the outbreak.

"If the vaccine is not a good match for the virus -- as is the case with the H5N1 strain now sweeping Asia -- it can still replicate but most animals do not show signs of the disease," the magazine said.

The fresh outbreak in China was what experts dreaded most with its vast southern population living cheek by jowl with farm animals.

The US government says nearly four out of five chickens in China, which accounts for 46 per cent of world egg production, are raised on household farms, making epidemics hard to control.

But little appears to be available to fight the bird flu, a dilemma similar to the early stages of the Sars fight.

There are no vaccines for it because the bird flu virus has mutated since first crossing the species barrier in Hong Kong in 1997, killing six people.

Seven of the eight dead were children. No one knows why they are so vulnerable. No one is sure how it spreads, although wild birds are the prime suspects.

While economists say unless the virus mutates into one which can pass from human to human Asia's hopes of a stellar economic year are undented, the political dimension of the crisis is also acute for some countries.

Small farmers dependent on poultry are getting increasingly agitated, especially in Thailand and Indonesia, and stock markets are starting to take hits as investors fear a Sars-like impact -- which cost $60 billion, the Asian Development Bank says.

A contrite Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had to admit to "mistakes and human errors" after criticism at home and abroad that his government covered up the outbreak.

His chief spokesman described it as a "screw up" in the provinces where "we found there was lots of confusion about the kinds of information that needed to be reported upstairs".

- REUTERS