China has exterminated all the 35 cases of highly pathogenic H5N1 epidemic outbreak in the country after culling 22.849 million fowls. 194,000 fowls were fund contracted with the avian flu and 186,000 were dead.

Jia Youling, chief veterinarian at the Ministry of Agriculture, told the overseas edition of People's Daily that there would be very slim possibility of widespread avian flu outbreak this spring thanks to the precautions and control measures.

He said the 35 cases took place in 14 provinces and autonomous regions with three in 2006. The number was down by 94 percent compared with the 49 cases in the same period of 2004.

The Ministry of Agriculture has issued a series of circulations and standards to fight against zoogenic diseases for this year. Arrangements on the spring vaccination campaign have been made specifically.

By Mar. 17, 2.967 billion doses of avian flu vaccine had been allocated across the country. Most of the places are expected to be ready for combating the spread of the pandemic through vaccination of backyard bred poultries by Mid-April when migrant birds flow northward.

Jia assured that lab tests and field tests had proved the effectiveness of the vaccine in use developed by China despite mutation of the bird flu virus.

In response to the reports questioning the effectiveness of the existing vaccine against mutated virus and even the possibility of making the pandemic even more complicated, Jia said China is watching closely the mutation of the avian flu virus and has kept sieving virus to preserve them as seed virus in accordance with international common practice.

Jia especially noted that the claim about poultries carrying virus even after being vaccinated was no more than a speculation or fear of one or two experts who had made the allegation, and had not been verified by any empirical experience so far in the world. He stressed that a healthy fowl, as long as it is vaccinated effectively, does not carry the virus.

Jia mentioned the 15 human avian flu cases in China. Four of them happened in places where there were fowl cases and 11 in places where there weren't. That means, warned Jia, there are various channels of human contagion. The unidentified sources of infection has become common concern of the international community.

Jia added that man can be caught by the avian flu virus through directly contacting or eating poultry which died of the avian flu, breathing in dusts with highly intensive bird flu virus, or contacting pollutants and water contaminated by the virus, or migrant birds, wild birds and pet birds carrying the virus.

Jia also highlighted the strict reporting system that China had adopted. Systems at the national and grassroots levels are in place to monitor, report and respond quickly to emergencies of animal pandemic. There are 450 testing stations for major animal pandemic around the country and 90 percent of villages have designated personnel to be responsible for the prevention of the pandemic.

He concluded that China has a complete system of reporting and monitoring major animal pandemic. " The Ministry of Agriculture has not found any failure of reporting so far. Any such failure will face harsh punishment, " said Jia.

By People's Daily Online