Culling poultry for bird flu prevention has proven a
double-edged sword. While it could help curb the rampage of the
deadly virus, it has had a huge impact upon farmers' incomes.
This was a big concern for Vice Minister of Agriculture Yin
Chengjie, who said slaughtering poultry has brought huge losses to
farmers.
He told a seminar on Friday in Beijing the government has
compensated farmers 10 yuan (US$1.2) for each bird killed, but "it
cannot make up for the huge losses for farmers, as in some
provinces, nearly half of their income derived from poultry
rearing."
Last year, per capita net income of Chinese farmers reached
2,936 yuan (US$362), up 6.8 percent year on year the highest
increase rate since 1997.
Such a high rate is difficult to sustain this year, but the 5
percent growth goal, set at the beginning of this year, is
achievable if the "bird flu epidemic can be stamped out very soon,"
said Jiang Zhenghua, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress.
In addition to the bird flu outbreak, this year's slow growth in
farmers' incomes is also attributable to dormant grain prices,
increase in cost of production materials and impact of China's
entry into the World Trade Organization, according to sources at
the seminar.
New outbreak
The Ministry of Agriculture has announced that 2,500 poultry in
Jiangshan County of central China's Hubei Province have been killed
by the fatal H5N1 strain of bird flu.
The eighth case reported on the mainland occurred in two
townships of Jingshan on November 2, and was confirmed to have been
caused by the H5N1 strain by the National Avian Influenza Reference
Laboratory on Friday.
Local authorities have ordered the culling of 31,313 fowls
within a 3-kilometer-radius of the area.
Meanwhile, the country's seventh bird flu outbreak has killed
300 chickens in northeast China's Liaoning Province, prompting the
already afflicted province to cull another 2.5 million fowls, the
ministry said on Thursday.
The case occurred in Beining, near the city of Jinzhou, on
November 6.
Also, central China's Hunan Province announced on Friday that no
pigs have been infected by bird flu in any part of the
province.
Human vaccine
In a related development, a leading disease control official
said China has completed pre-clinical research on human vaccines
against H5N1 bird flu, Xinhua reported on Thursday. "Chinese
scientists and vaccine developers have finished the pre-clinical
research and applied for clinical trials from the State Food and
Drug Administration to further test the vaccines' safety and
effectiveness," the report quoted Wang Yu, director of the Chinese
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying.
Tamiflu production
In Shanghai, the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (SPG) said
it is awaiting Roche's response to its application for the patent
transfer of Tamiflu. "Roche is now studying our application, but
this type of application process can take as long as one year,"
said SPG spokesman Yin Qinxie.
(China Daily November 12, 2005)
