Birds suspected in spreading flu 'cleared before export'

The Taiwanese birds said to have infected a parrot in Britain with bird flu were inspected for flu before leaving the island and received a clean bill of health, a Taiwanese official said today.

Taiwan also announced it waned people arriving on the island from China to test their own health for 10 days, after birds smuggled from the mainland tested positive for bird flu virus.

Chiang Shien-tsong, the Agriculture Council specialist in charge of disease control said 185 Taiwanese birds exported to Britain left the island in September only after being issued an official council certificate attesting they were free from viruses, including the H5N1 that has devastated poultry stocks and killed more than 60 people in Asia over the past two years.

“Our birds were healthy,” Chiang said. “There were no problems with them.”

On Sunday Britain confirmed its first case of bird flu since 1992, saying the virus that killed a parrot in quarantine was H5N1.

Debby Reynolds, chief veterinarian for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said the parrot was likely infected with the virus while it was in quarantine with birds from Taiwan that subsequently died. Tests conducted on the Taiwanese birds died were inconclusive.

Chiang said British officials should not have assumed the parrot was infected by the Taiwanese birds just because they were in quarantine together.

“They should come up with scientific evidence before making any accusation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Centre for Disease Control said that from tomorrow people going to the island from China would be handed a booklet at airports asking them to take their own temperature twice during the 10 days following their arrival.

If they show symptoms of bird flu, such as fever, coughing, or a sore throat, the visitors should immediately begin wearing surgical masks and contact a local Health Department, the centre said.

The development comes after Taiwan confirmed its first case of the H5N1 virus last Thursday. That case involved Chinese birds taken from a Panama-registered freighter that was stopped by the Taiwanese coast guard on October 14.

Taiwanese made more than 3 million trips to China for sightseeing and business last year, while about 350,000 Chinese went to Taiwan. Lin Ting, CDC’s deputy chief, warned Taiwanese travelling in China to avoid going into the wild or coming into contact with live birds during their visits.

In a related development, Taiwanese Premier Frank Hsieh said the government would set up wire nets around bird farms to prevent the invasion of migratory birds.

Hsieh said Taiwan would also step up efforts to monitor migratory birds for bird flu infections.