Posted on 01/04/2004 9:06:32 PM PST by blam
China Orders Cats Killed After SARS Tests
By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer
BEIJING - China on Monday ordered some 10,000 civet cats in wildlife markets killed in its southern province of Guangdong after genetic tests suggested a link to a suspected SARS (news - web sites) case.
Also Monday, authorities denied reports that a second suspected case of severe acute respiratory syndrome had been found in Guangdong.
All of Guangdong's wildlife markets were ordered to close, Feng Liuxiang, deputy director of the province's health department, said on national television.
Civets are considered a delicacy in Guangdong and are served in wild game restaurants.
The announcement came after researchers at Hong Kong University said they found similarities between a virus found in the cats and in a suspected SARS patient in Guangdong, suggesting the disease might have jumped from animals.
"We will take resolute measures to close all the wildlife markets in Guangdong and to kill the civet cats," Feng said on the national noon newscast of China Central Television.
CCTV said there were believed to be about 10,000 civet cats on sale in Guangdong wildlife markets.
Civets were cited by scientists as a possible source of SARS, which is believed to have begun in Guangdong. The disease killed 349 people on China's mainland and 774 worldwide before subsiding in June.
China banned trade in civets and 53 other wild animals last April amid sweeping efforts to stop the spread of SARS. That prohibition was lifted in August despite warnings by scientists that the animals might still be a health threat.
The new ban was announced as Chinese and international experts were trying to confirm whether a 32-year-old television producer identified as a possible SARS case has the virus. They say that after three weeks of inconclusive tests, they expect to announce a decision this week.
Wang said the patient was recovering.
Also Monday, Chinese health officials denied reports by Hong Kong newspapers that a waitress at a wild game restaurant in Guangzhou, the Guangdong provincial capital, was a suspected SARS case.
"We do have a fever patient due to pneumonia, but this has no direct connection with any suspected SARS case," the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang Ming, deputy director of the Guangzhou municipal disease prevention and control center, as saying.
"We have taken necessary medical measures towards the patient with a fever," Wang was quoted as saying. "Our diseases prevention and control centers are examining and closely monitoring the situation."
In the Philippines, health officials said Monday they have isolated a woman suspected of contracting the SARS virus while working in Hong Kong.
SARS test results were expected later Monday, Health Department official Dennis Magat said.
He said the woman was isolated in a Manila hospital after developing a fever upon arrival from Hong Kong. It wasn't immediately clear when she arrived in the Philippines.
"We are waiting for a test to confirm if she has SARS," Magat said.
Last year, the Philippines reported 12 SARS cases, including two deaths. All but four were traced back to a Filipina nurse who contracted the virus in Toronto and infected her father after returning home. Both have died.
Also,has anyone heard if foreign animals have been banned in China or other places in that part of the world?
LOL! That reminds me of Eddie Murphy's old stand-up comedy routine, which included the joke about Captain Kirk and the green Orion slave girl. :^)
There's too much money to be made in the illicit trade.The price of a banned animal will rise and "some" people will not be able to bypass the high profits to be made with them.
On the other hand,if an animal's trade is banned and people stop or just slow the harvesting of them,then we could be looking at an overpopulated and weak group of critters that would be even more likely to spread disease.
In the U.S.,our furbearing animals are carrying more rabies and other diseases than they once did,because they're overpopulated.
The overpopulation is caused by being under harvested.The anti-fur campaign in America has caused prices for many animals to be so low that many are hardly worth catching.
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