China's top vet rejects new bird flu strain report
By Lindsay Beck
The Star, 11  Nov 2006

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's chief veterinarian on Friday roundly rejected scientists' claims that a new, vaccine-resistant bird flu strain had been found in the country and slammed their research paper's data as unauthentic. 

Hong Kong and U.S. scientists published a paper last week saying they had detected the new strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus in the southern Chinese province of Fujian last year. 

"The data cited in the article was unauthentic, and the research methodology was not based on science," Jia Youling, China's chief veterinary officer, told a news conference. 

The paper that identified the "Fujian strain", published in the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said it had emerged in China and may have started outbreaks in Southeast Asia. 

"In fact, there is no such thing as a new 'Fujian-like' virus variant at all," Jia said. 

"It   is   utterly   groundless  to assert that

the outbreak of bird flu in Southeast Asian countries was caused by avian influenza in China and there would be a new outbreak wave in the world," he said. 

"It is unforgivable to claim that China's poultry vaccinations have failed with so little data, because it is really presumptuous and irresponsible." 

He added that China's national bird flu laboratory had been "organized" by the Agriculture Ministry to follow any signs of mutation. 

"Vaccines targeting different virus strains have been stocked to deal with any possible mutation," Jia said. 

WHO WANTS VIRUS SAMPLES He attacked the methodology of Guan Yi, one of the virologists responsible for the paper. 

Jia said the Fujian-like strain, which Guan said had emerged since March 2005, was actually the same as bird flu viruses found in two Hunan counties in February 2004 in terms of genetic sequencing. 

"Guan said he wanted to alert the world with the paper, but why didn't he report the markets with virus-carrying birds to the government if he truly believed in his findings?" Jia said.  

Chen Hualan, director of China's National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory, said there was evidence of mutation in two inland regions, but that the situation was under control.  "We found a tiny amount of mutated bird flu viruses in Shanxi and Ningxia this year, which showed greater resistance to vaccines. But we have developed new vaccines against them," she told the news conference. 

In the first 10 months of the year, there were 10 confirmed poultry outbreaks in seven provinces, Jia said, but added 95 percent of domesticated birds had been vaccinated. 

Adding to the confusion, China's Agriculture Ministry has refused to share animal virus samples of H5N1 with the World Health Organization (WHO), which the WHO says is hampering its understanding of how the virus is changing. 

The WHO has said the Fujian strain has not shown a heightened danger to humans, but scientists fear bird flu could change into a form that can pass easily between people, potentially causing a pandemic.  H5N1 has caused 21 human infections in China since late 2003, including 14 deaths. With the world's largest poultry population and millions of backyard birds, the country is seen as key to the fight against bird flu.