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Updated Monday, February 9, 2009 10:51 am TWN, By Hazel Parry, dpa

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Deadly tide of birds in HK fuels fears of H5N1 cover-up

Hong Kong Secretary of Health Dr York Chow confirmed Thursday the birds are most likely to have drifted down from the Pearl River in southern China sometime over the last week. He also said that tests on the dead birds detected a strain of H5N1 previously found in southern China and not Hong Kong.

Leading Hong Kong bird-flu expert and chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association, Lo Wing-Lok said all these facts indicated that “something very terrible” could be happening in China.

“In China they are repeatedly denying any outbreak among birds but how come we have these dead birds turning up in Hong Kong?” Lo said.

“I don't believe the source of these dead birds is Hong Kong. They are from the mainland. Possibly, they were dumped in the river or sea by farmers who have farms close to the Pearl River or sea.”

Lo said the birds was especially worrying in the light of the high number of human cases in China this year. Taken together this could indicate the virus had changed into a form more easily transmitted from birds to humans or that the vaccine used on poultry was suppressing symptoms but not the transmission so outbreaks were going unnoticed.

The WHO's Western Pacific spokesman Peter Cordingley said their area of concern was that many of the recent human infections in China seemed to be occurring in the absence of any infection among birds.

“Usually we have birds serving as sentinels, telling us there is something going on in the environment. But in China, people are falling sick before any reports of sick birds. That is the wrong way round and is quite worrying,” Cordingley said.

“Quite clearly there seems to be gaps in the surveillance of wild birds and poultry in China. We don't know what these gaps are and it may not be sloppy surveillance. But from a human health point of view, we are concerned.

“If people are to stay safe and healthy we need to know where the virus is and the evidence is that in China at the moment, people don't know where it is.”

That uncertainty is especially worrying for Hong Kong which shares its waters and border with China and imports millions of chickens from the mainland every year.

“We often ask where this virus is coming from and we get no answers, Lo said. “Seeing dead birds floating towards Hong Kong shows the virus is not being controlled at its source.

“The only thing we can do is progressively step up our controls. But controls have their limit and we are approaching that limit. We have to now rely on China to do its part.”

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