- (AFP) -- Asia's main weapon against the bird flu epidemic,
a cull of more than 25 million chickens in 10 affected nations, is facing
questions over whether it was being carried out safely and fairly.
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- The World Health Organisation (WHO) said if it was not
carried out properly the cull could increase the risk of a disastrous mutation
that would enable the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu to be transmitted
from person to person.
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- "If (the killing of birds) is done in such a way
that exposes more people, then this... could be increasing the risk of
developing a strain that you would not want to see," said WHO spokesman
in Geneva Dick Thompson.
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- "From what we can see ... many of these culling
workers are not wearing the right personal protection equipment, we are
also unsure how many of these people have been vaccinated against (normal)
influenza," he said Thursday.
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- The WHO has warned that while humans have so far only
caught the disease through contact with infected birds or their droppings,
it could claim millions of lives if it mutates into a more contagious form.
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- The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) also said it was vital to properly compensate poultry farmers whose
flocks were destroyed.
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- "Compensation will be one of the key factors that
will determine whether or not we stamp out these outbreaks," said
the FAO's Bangok-based regional animal health officer Hans Wagner.
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- "If the level of compensation is insufficient then
the farmers will not carry out the culls. They may even resort to clandestinely
selling the infected animals," he said.
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- Agreement on a price level will require unprecedented
international cooperation among Asia's countries, especially Japan and
China.
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- There have also been calls for Western nations to help
shoulder the burden or risk creating a worsening crisis that could then
spread to their borders.
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- Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea,
Thailand and Vietnam have all reported outbreaks of H5N1 among poultry,
while Taiwan and Pakistan have reported weaker strains of the virus.
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- The virus has claimed 10 lives, eight in Vietnam and
two in Thailand.
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- Indonesia has come in for heavy criticism over its reluctance
to carry out a mass poultry cull to combat the epidemic which has infected
millions of birds across much of its vast archipelago.
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- President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday ordered the
immediate killing of all poultry infected with bird flu following pressure
from the WHO.
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- But Indonesia appeared to backtrack Friday as agriculture
ministry spokesman Hari Priyono said it would only carry out a selective
slaughter that would spare "healthy" animals at farms where infections
were reported.
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- The WHO recommends that all birds within a radius of
three kilometers (two miles) of any outbreak be killed.
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- In Thailand alone 4.7 million chickens have been slaughtered,
mostly packed into sacks and buried alive in deep pits in a hasty operation
that was criticised Friday as inhumane and avoidable.
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- "Burying them alive is not the right way to do it,"
Thai Animal Guardians Association chairman Roger Lohanan told The Nation
newspaper, adding that if the government had revealed the bird flu outbreak
earlier, preparations could have been made for the cull to be carried out
in a less cruel way.
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- Thailand and China, which has reported bird flu outbreaks
in three provinces hundreds of kilometres (miles) apart, are among the
governments battling allegations they covered up outbreaks of bird flu.
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