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Improved farming key to fight bird flu: WHO
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-25 19:14
The World Health Organization's regional director says China must change its
farming practices as a long-term solution to preventing outbreaks of deadly bird
flu.
A Chinese farming family plucks chicken
feathers at their village house in rural Yongding County, Fujian Province.
The World Health Organization's regional director says China must change
its farming practices as a long-term solution to preventing outbreaks of
deadly bird flu. [AFP] |
Shigeru Omi, director for the western pacific region, told the Xinhua news
agency that the common practice in China of raising mixed animals and living in
close proximity to animals must change, Xinhua said.
"We cannot kill all the chickens and ducks to prevent bird flu from spreading
among them and to humans, therefore we have to make sure the chickens, ducks and
humans do not mingle together," Omi was quoted saying.
Segregation is one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of the
virus, Omi told Xinhua in an interview.
"But we cannot do it overnight as China has a huge poultry population," he
added.
"That's why we have to step up improvement of the primitive farming practice
in China's rural regions, especially the backyard feeding of chickens and ducks
in many rural households," he said.
China produces 14.2 billion poultry annually, and most are raised in farmers'
yards or even inside their houses.
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