Official: Bird flu crisis "severe" in China
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-11-21 21:54

To combat bird flu, China also announced this month it would vaccinate all poultry in the country, a challenging task that officials defended Monday.

Sixty percent of the nation's 5.2 billion existing poultry stock have now been vaccinated, said Jia Youling, director of the agriculture ministry's veterinary bureau.

Jia rejected criticism that vaccinating the entire poultry population would allow immunised birds to continue carrying and spreading the disease without showing symptoms of sickness.

"China is a responsible country. We must contain the disease in our country and not let it spread to other countries," Cao Kangtai, director of the State Council's legislative affairs office, told reporters.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since 2003. China reported its first human fatality this month.