Posted on 11/15/2005 7:47:18 PM PST by blam
Chinese to vaccinate billions of chickens
By Peter Goff in Beijing
(Filed: 16/11/2005)
China is vaccinating its entire stock of 14 billion chickens, ducks and geese against bird flu as it struggles to control outbreaks of the deadly disease.
The project will be the largest vaccination program ever attempted.
A poultry trader counts his chickens at a market in Xiangfan
A UN Food and Agricultural Organisation spokesman in Rome said: "China is one country that can be extremely efficient in these matters when it puts its mind to it."
The country raises about 14 billion chickens, ducks and geese each year to help feed its 1.3 billion population.
Jia Youling, the Agriculture Ministry's chief veterinary officer, said: "China is in the process of vaccinating all the poultry in the country."
He added that the health authorities were currently producing more than 100 million doses of the bird vaccine a day and that the cost of the project would be largely subsidised by the government. In Europe, vaccinations would cost 2.2p per bird, meaning China's costs could run to more than £30 million.
The order to vaccinate is being passed from central government to the 31 provincial governments, and on to counties and villages, where health officials will visit farms raising chickens, ducks and some geese.
The birds will have to be injected individually. Philip Connolly, from Merial, a British animal health company, said that the poultry would usually require two injections to be adequately protected.
The bird flu virus H5N1 can not only spread like wildfire among bird stocks but can also be transmitted from birds to humans. It has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003 but China, despite its multiple outbreaks, has not yet reported any human deaths.
Health experts fear the virus could kill millions around the world if it mutates to the point where it could spread easily from human to human. The intensified effort to control the virus comes as China is struggling to contain several reported outbreaks. Tens of millions of birds have been culled and large areas have been sealed off.
Mr Jia said the outbreaks were "basically under control", although he warned there were likely to be new cases as winter sets in.
Nine outbreaks among birds have been confirmed in China since October but the World Health Organisation in Beijing said last night it had been informed of at least two more outbreaks in the north-western province of Xinjiang.
How about changing how China raises its chickens so they don't have the conditions that create these viruses to begin with.
Why now? According to every LSM outlet in the world it is too late.."We Are Doomed"..(rolling eyes)
I didn't know there were that many French...
Why don't they vaccinate chicks as normal policy? Poultry vaccines have been around a long time!
The Chinese estimate that it will take 3,127 years to vaccinate all their chickens.
Riiiiiiiiiight.
I'm so sure they will cough up the money.
PS - did you see the size of that chicken??
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