|
Epidemic Is Killing Pigs in Southeastern China
helloooooo? future pandemic? ht to InstapunditA mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals. The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications. or any information? The Chinese government and particularly the government of Guangdong Province, which is adjacent to Hong Kong was criticized in 2003 for concealing information about the SARS virus for the first four months after it emerged in Foshan, 95 miles northwest of Hong Kong. After SARS spread to Hong Kong and around the world, top Chinese officials promised to improve disclosure. But officials in Hong Kong as well as at the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, both agencies of the United Nations, said today that they been told almost nothing about the latest pig deaths, and been given limited details about wheat gluten contamination. Because pigs can catch many of the same diseases as people, including bird flu, the two U.N. agencies maintain global networks to track and investigate unexplained patterns of pig deaths. Hong Kong television broadcasts and newspapers were full of lurid accounts today of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies in Gaoyao and neighboring Yunfu, both in Guangdong Province. The Apple Daily newspaper said that as many as 80 percent of the pigs in the area had died, that panicky farmers were selling ailing animals at deep discounts and that pig carcasses were floating in a river. The reports in Hong Kong said the disease began killing pigs after the Chinese New Year celebrations in February, and is now spreading. But state-controlled news outlets in China have reported almost nothing about the pig deaths, and very little about the wheat gluten problem. go figure? A man answering the phone at the city government offices in Gaoyao, 140 miles northwest of Hong Kong, confirmed late this afternoon that pigs were dying there. He declined to give his name. Dr. Kwok Ka-ki, a surgeon who represents the medical profession in Hong Kongs legislature, said that the Chinese government should share all pig-death information with the Chinese public and with the city of Hong Kong, which Britain returned to Chinese control in 1997. They definitely need to tell the public, but also people in the city, as to the extent of the outbreak, how is the disease being controlled and the impact on public health, he said. It would help a lot to relieve the worry, and it would help the rest of China to fight the disease. There have been no reports of people becoming ill from the disease. But the SARS experience has left Hong Kong with lasting jitters about mysterious diseases in mainland China. Medical experts said that the extent of the bleeding from the pigs, including reports of bloody skin lesions, did not sound like the usual symptoms of bird flu, but added that the pig deaths nonetheless needed to be investigated. Two spokeswomen for the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said that the Guangdong authorities had told the department only that no live pigs were being shipped from the Yunfu and Gaoyao area to Hong Kong. A spokesman for the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said that there were no signs of suspicious deaths among Hong Kongs pigs, and referred questions about pigs in Guangdong to the food department. Both departments said last week, in written responses to questions, that they were not testing wheat gluten imported from the mainland for the presence of melamine scrap, a residue from the manufacture of a chemical used in plastics production. The presence of melamine scrap in pet food has been linked to the deaths of as many as 4,000 cats and dogs in the United States, and prompted the culling of chickens that ate contaminated feed. Hong Kong officials expressed surprise today when they were told that the official Xinhua news agency mentioned a month ago that the mainland had begun nationwide testing of wheat gluten for melamine. Animal-feed dealers in northeastern China said late last month that the two main destinations for feed mixed with melamine had been the Yangtze delta region near Shanghai and the Pearl River delta region near Hong Kong. China has allowed American regulators to visit the country and begin investigating the wheat gluten problem, after initially declining to issue them visas. Posted by: Frank G 2007-05-08 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=187837 |