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Virus outbreaks may change poultry raising
(China Daily/AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-01 06:02
With 29 outbreaks of the disease discovered so far this year, China is
seeking to vaccinate its estimated 5.2 billion farm raised birds, but requires
manufacturers to have a license to produce the vaccines.
Police said that the Jinyu Corporation failed to apply for a license from the
state to manufacture bird flu vaccines for poultry, but labelled its products
with fake government licensing numbers, it said.
Investigators found the fake vaccines were used on farms in Liaoning's
Jinzhou region, where an outbreak of bird flu occurred in mid-October, the
report said.
Some 2.5 million farm raised birds were culled in the Jinzhou region
following the outbreak, devastating the livelihood of farmers in the region.
The relationship between the two suspected companies was not immediately
clear, but one man arrested, Wang Jiafu, was a vice director of the Jinyu
Corporation as well as the legal representative of the Inner Mongolian
Biological Medical Products Factory, it said.
The government warned this month that the use of fake vaccines in Liaoning
could have disastrous consequences for China.
"The use of fake and shoddy vaccines will result in a disaster," Agriculture
Minister Du Qingling said on November 9.
"If the vaccines are not up to standard, then immunization to the virus will
not be uniform or effective. This could bring huge losses."
Farms in Liaoning were highly concentrated, Du said, meaning that any
problems in vaccinating poultry could result in the epidemic spreading.
"If we miss the chance to exterminate the virus in the early stages, then the
difficulty in wiping it out will increase by several times, as will the spread
of the epidemic," Du said.
"We must fully recognize that at present there is a possibility that the
epidemic will spread and expand. This is not an exaggeration just to scare
people."
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