Claims that China is the source of the southeast Asian bird flu outbreak are incorrect, unfounded, unscientific and therefore irresponsible, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Thursday.

Avian influenza was a disease which humans had known about for 100 years, Zhang said. The sources and infection channels of the disease followed epidemiological patterns and required scientific study to understand.

To date, there had been absolutely no evidence that China was the source of the bird flu, she acknowledged, and China hoped all countries would take a scientific attitude towards the epidemic.

Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier that it was too early to target any country as the source of disease, Zhang noted.

The Chinese government regarded the disease as a significant public health threat and public health had to be made a priority, she said. No Chinese had been inflected by the disease so far.

Zhang went on to say that the Chinese government had also taken a range of resolute legal and scientific measures to prevent and check its spread,

The government took comprehensive control measures from the very beginning, initiating a rigid reporting system as early as Jan. 19.

The Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant departments had informed all ports to strictly examine poultry from infected regions, and poultry from eight Asian nations had been banned.

Moreover, the government organized the production and storage of vaccines, dispatched at least nine groups to supervise and direct the prevention work, further improved laws and regulations to ensure the campaign was conducted legally, and beefed up cooperation with neighboring countries and international organizations and kept close contact with WHO and other relevant international bodies.

Only through international cooperation, could epidemics like bird flu would be eradicated, the spokeswoman said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2004)