China is willing to collaborate more with the international
community in dealing with the avian influenza crisis by hosting the
upcoming China-ASEAN special meeting on March 2, said an official
of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Bangkok
Saturday.
China has invited experts and officials at the vice-ministerial
level from relevant departments of the 10 members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to meet in Beijing
for a special meeting on bird flu control.
The ASEAN secretariat, the FAO, the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) will also
attend the meeting.
China has been reporting its bird flu situation across the
country, from the south to the north, and the reporting system is
improving, Dr. J. Domenech, director of FAO's Animal Production and
Health Division told Xinhua at a press conference held at the
conclusion of the emergency meeting on avian influenza.
China is exercising mixed strategies, including vaccination of
birds, to fight the epidemic and the efforts are well paid-off as
there have been no reports of new outbreaks in the country for the
past 11 days, said the UN official.
Targeted vaccination, as implemented in China, is one of the
options to control the virus, he said. However, the practice has to
be properly monitored, he cautioned.
And the Chinese government is working together with FAO experts
to carry out more evaluation of the situation on the ground, and it
is getting more support from the international community to get the
epidemic under control, he said.
The three-day technical meeting on avian influenza control in
animals in Asia opened in Bangkok Thursday. The meeting was
co-sponsored by the FAO and the OIE with the participation of
representatives from 23 countries in Asia.
(Xinhua News Agency February 29, 2004)