By Claims in an international scientific journal that a new bird
flu variant is prevalent in China, and that it has been transmitted
to neighboring countries, have been refuted by Chinese
scientists.
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and two leading bird
flu control experts are scheduled to hold a news conference today
to rebut the findings of a paper published in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences of the United States last
week.
The paper, "Emergence and predominance of an H5N1 influenza
variant in China," claimed that a previously unidentified H5N1
variant, called H5N1 Fujian-like strain, was found in almost all
poultry outbreaks; and caused recent human infections in southern
China.
The study, by US and Hong Kong researchers, also claimed that
the new strain of the virus has resulted in an outbreak in
Southeast Asia.
"I have read the article and found its viewpoints and conclusion
on the 'Fujian-like variant' lack scientific evidence," Director of
the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory Chen Hualan
said.
"The so-called 'Fujian-like variant' is by no means a new
variant. It is highly homogeneous to the H5N1 subtype virus
isolated in Hunan and other provinces during a bird flu
outbreak in early 2004," she told China Daily in an
exclusive interview.
The Ministry of Agriculture isolated only one new mutated virus
strain of avian influenza during a surveillance campaign earlier
this year in Shanxi Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northern
China, but no new virus was discovered in southern China, she
said.
(China Daily November 10, 2006)