Citing a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture, Foreign
Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao yesterday refuted reports that a
new strain of bird flu has emerged in southern China.
An article in Tuesday's issue of the US-based Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (www.pnas.org) said a new strain of
the H5N1 bird flu virus, called the "Fujian-like virus," because it
was first found in Fujian Province, has emerged in southern China
and become prevalent in the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand.
News of the new virus was widely reported in foreign media.
Quoting the statement, Liu said: "China has noticed recent
publications by some foreign academic publications about the bird
flu situation in southern China, but their claims are totally
different from the real situation.
"Since 2004, China has been keeping a close eye on the bird flu
situation in its southern regions.
"Gene sequence analysis shows that all the variants of the virus
found in southern China share high uniformity, meaning they all
belong to the same gene type. No distinctive change was found in
their biological characteristics."
In response to accusations from WHO experts that China is
reluctant to share information and samples of bird flu, the
statement said: "China has always actively participated in the
prevention and control of bird flu and has maintained good
co-operative relations with international organizations, and shares
with the international community all the latest developments in the
bird flu situation and virus information in the country in a timely
manner."
(China Daily November 3, 2006)