Bird flu: UAE bans import of poultry from HK, China, Australia

CANBERRA, Australia, Jan 5: The United Arab Emirates has included Australia in a ban on imported poultry in the wake of the Hong Kong bird flu scare, even though it imports no birds from Australia, officials said Monday, says AP.

Australian diplomats in Dubai confirmed the United Arab Emirates had imposed a ban on all chicken and bird meat from China, Hong Kong and Australia, a spokesman for Primary Industries Minister John Anderson said.

There have been no cases of bird flu in humans in Australia, but the ban is believed to stem from an outbreak of a chicken influenza virus late last year.

Australian authorities said the outbreak was of a different strain to the one blamed for four deaths in Hong Kong and which has prompted the eradication of the territory's entire chicken population.

"We've been informed there was a temporary suspension and it's now being pursued through diplomatic channels," Anderson's spokesman said.

We'll be providing them with the technical information necessary to convince them we have a safe product."The ban would not affect Australia's exports because there was never any record of poultry exports to the United Arab Emirates, he said.

China denies any cases of flu
BEIJING, Jan 5: China said Monday it remains free of the bird flu that has forced Hong Kong to slaughter its chicken flocks, despite unconfirmed reports of poultry die-offs and at least one human death, says AP.

A new round of tests of chicken blood samples from farms in southern Guangdong province that are the main source of Hong Kong's fresh fowl showed no signs of the disease, the newspaper China Daily reported.

Some experts have said they believe that like most strains of influenza, the bird flu originated in southern China. Until China halted exports on Dec. 23, its poultry farms supplied some 75,000 chickens a day to Hong Kong.

Millions of Hong Kong residents are expected to return to their Chinese hometowns for the lunar new year later this month. This has raised concerns that the disease might spread in either direction although experts say there is no evidence humans can give the disease to each other.

Because the disease appears to be spread mainly through contact with contaminated poultry, Hong Kong has attempted to destroy its entire chicken population to prevent a possible epidemic.

The China Daily report said new tests were conducted on a collection of 1,087 samples gathered in December at farms and markets in Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong.

A report last week by the Xinhua News Agency said no tests had been conducted on human blood.

The report cited unnamed experts at the National Influenza Centre as saying there was "no need to panic" as no cases of the bird flu had been found in China.

The bird flu has killed four people in Hong Kong. Of the 16 people who are known to have fallen ill with the disease, seven have recovered. Five others also are suspected of having the flu.