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Friday, Jul 08, 2005

International

International

Bird flu virus detected in migrating geese in China

David Adam

Tens of thousands of birds possibly carrying the disease are due to head for India and Bangladesh

LONDON: Scientists have found a deadly strain of bird flu in migratory geese at a nature reserve in western China, raising fears that the disease could rapidly spread across the world. Tens of thousands of birds that could be carrying the H5N1 avian influenza virus are due to leave the reserve in September, heading for warmer climes across the Himalayas to India and Bangladesh, and south towards Australia and New Zealand. Experts have called for urgent action to prevent the disease, which has killed 54 people, from escaping its stronghold in south-east Asia.

Yi Guan, a virologist with the joint influenza research centre at the University of Hong Kong, said: ``We have to take action right now. These are ideal conditions for the virus to spread and when September comes the birds will take the virus away. This is a major concern to me.''

The virologists are so worried because this is the first time the virus, common among farmed chickens, has shown it can spread between wild birds.

Dead wild birds with symptoms of avian flu have been found before, but always close to poultry farms.

Experts assumed they had caught it from poultry, but there are no farms near the Qinghai Lake reserve.

The latest epidemic was first detected on April 30 in bar-headed geese at Qinghai Lake. By May 20 it had killed some 1,500 birds. Brown-headed gulls, great black-headed gulls and great cormorants were also infected.

Genetic analysis of the virus extracted from dead birds shows that it is closely related to the strain that has jumped to humans in Thailand and Vietnam.

The H5N1 virus does not yet have the ability to spread easily from person to person, but it could be just a matter of time. Scientists warned earlier this year that the virus was close to mutating into a version capable of causing a global pandemic that would kill millions of people around the world.

Dr Guan criticised the Chinese authorities: ``They have taken almost no action to control this outbreak. They should have asked for international support. These birds will go to India and Bangladesh and there they will meet birds that come from Europe.''

He called for an international taskforce to be set up to capture living birds at the lake and examine them for signs of the virus. His team reports its findings in Nature.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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