H5N1

H7N9: 'My family and I don't dare to eat anything these days'

Via The Guardian, a good report: China bird flu scare: 'My family and I don't dare to eat anything these days'. Excerpt:

Among the bustle of morning trade at Yanqing food market, one corner remains quiet. Wedged between the beef and fish counters, where traders in galoshes cheerily hack the heads off wriggling carp, the poultry stalls are boarded, their freezers taped shut. A handwritten notice from the management offers: "All chicken products have stopped being sold, sorry for any inconvenience." 

As the death toll from H7N9 avian flu rises, public concern over health and food safety is growing too. The full impact on China's massive poultry sector is yet to be realised, but early indications point to widespread damage. Qiu Baoqin, of the National Poultry Industry Association, told AFP that H7N9 had been a "devastating blow". 

There are 33 cases of H7N9 in Shanghai and its neighbouring provinces with nine fatalities. Microbiologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences attribute the strain to a mingling of viruses from migrating birds with those found in chickens, pigeons and ducks in the Yangtze river delta. 

In sample tests from fowl markets, 34 have proved positive for H7N9. The cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing have shut live poultry markets, culling hundreds of thousands of birds in an attempt to curb the spread. 

Last year China produced more than 18m tonnes of poultry, over 20% of its total meat output, according to the statistics bureau. But as markets opened after the national Qingming holiday shares in companies tied to the industry tumbled – Shandong Minhe Animal Husbandry, a poultry producer, lost 9.5% on 8 April. 

In Shanghai, some schools have stopped serving chicken. McDonald's slashed the price of its McNugget meal from 36 yuan (£3.60) to 20 yuan (£2). 

"I normally buy chicken or duck several times a month, but since the bird flu I stopped buying them completely," said Ms Chen, a shopper at Yanqing street market in Shanghai. 

Bird flu is the latest in a string of food scandals to hit the city of 23 million residents in recent weeks: in March, 16,000 dead pigs were found floating in tributaries supplying Shanghai's drinking water. On 1 April, 250kg of dead fish appeared in a canal in the suburbs. 

The price of vegetables at Yanqing market have spiked accordingly. Chen says she will pay these premium prices rather than buy meat. 

"We're also avoiding pork," she said, adding: "Actually my family and I don't dare to eat anything these days."

H7N9: Shanghai considers permanent ban on sale of live poultry

Via the April 10 South China Morning Post: Shanghai considers permanent ban on sale of live poultry. Excerpt:

Shanghai authorities are considering a permanent ban on the sale of live poultry in the city, as the death toll from the H7N9 avian flu virus continues to rise. 

Authorities said yesterday the virus had claimed its eighth and ninth victims - an 83-year-old man from Suzhou , Jiangsu , who died a week after testing positive for the virus, and a 35-year-old woman from Chuzhou, Anhui. 

Four more infections with the new bird flu strain were also confirmed yesterday. In Shanghai, authorities said two local men, aged 62 and 77, were being treated for the virus and were in stable condition. In Zhejiang province, a 51-year-old woman in Huzhou and a 79-year-old man in Hangzhou were found to have the viris. 

Twenty-nine people have now been diagnosed with the bird flu. 

The director of Shanghai's agriculture commission, Sun Lei , said it would consider a public consultation on a permanent ban for the live-poultry trade, after 20 samples taken from wet markets tested positive for H7N9, according to the Oriental Morning Post. 

A total of 7,185 samples were collected by yesterday and included pigeons, chickens and feathers, the Shanghai Evening News reported. More than 111,000 birds have been culled in the city since Thursday. 

Many mainlanders prefer buying live poultry and having it butchered in a market or at home, as they believe the meat is fresher and tastes better. 

However, Sun said that meat kept at temperatures between zero and 4 degrees Celsius "is more tasty than that which is butchered and cooked immediately", because acidity in the meat is reduced by chilling it first. 

He acknowledged that banning the sale of live poultry would require consumers to change their cooking habits, but said: "I believe Shanghai residents will make the right choice as long as the chickens are safe and tasty."

H7N9: Catering, retail industries suffer

Via CNTV English: H7N9 virus: Catering, retail industries suffer.

It's lunch time here at Kentucky Fried Chicken. There used to be long lines at the counter, but today, there only a few people. People are afraid to eat chicken because of the H7N9 bird flu virus, which has so far claimed the lives of 7 people in China. But some people aren’t too worried. 

“I believe KFC has taken measures to avoid its food from being infected by the virus, otherwise it wouldn’t be open today.” 

“Fully cooked chicken is safe to eat. And I trust the food here in KFC.” 

“KFC is a big brand. I think its food is safe. I am not worried about being infected by the H7N9 here.” 

KFC Shanghai says that it has been closely monitoring the situation, and has assured that its fried chicken is safe to eat. 

But they refused our interview request, and did not reveal the extent to which the outbreak of the virus has affected their daily sales. 

But it’s clear that business has dropped. 

The customers I talked to are aware of H7N9 but they’ve chosen to eat here because they know fully cooked chicken is safe to eat, and more importantly, they trust the food. 

It’s a similar story at supermarkets in the city. Employees at this supermarket told me they were not selling live poultry anymore, but only certain cooked or frozen chicken products. 

Poultry and eggs represented a high proportion of sales here, and the impact of the flu virus has been devastating. 

"I used to buy chicken here a lot, but because of the bird flu, I am now buying online." 

"I did not buy any chicken or eggs here because of the flu virus." 

The Shanghai Municipal government’s decision to close poultry markets and ban poultry imports is not what has hurt the city’s catering and retail industries most. Poultry supplies remain stable and no shortages have been felt. Instead, the sudden drop in business revenues can be traced to the public’s fear of the spread of the H7N9 virus.

H7N9: The death of Mr. He

Shanghai Daily has some details on the city's latest case, Mr. He: Retired Shanghai man, 64, the latest bird flu infection victim. It also tells us something about the scale of the regional poultry industry. Excerpt:

Shanghai's latest case suffered from a cold on April 1. He started to develop a fever and went to the city's Ruijin Hospital two days later where he was treated after being diagnosed with pneumonia. But his symptoms were not serious and he was allowed to go home. 

On Sunday, he felt short of breath and went back to the hospital at 9:15am. This time he was diagnosed with severe pneumonia and admitted to be treated in isolation. 

He died at 6:45pm the same day. He was confirmed as having the H7N9 virus by the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention that evening. 

None of the patient's four close contacts had exhibited flu-like symptoms, officials said. 

The health commission said he wasn't detected with the infection on his first visit to Ruijin, because his symptoms weren't serious. 

It said the large number of patients suffering from the cold every day made it impossible to carry out blood tests on all patients. The main targets of H7N9 tests were people with severe symptoms or those who had been in close contact with poultry and birds, officials said. 

Currently, there is no requirement for hospitals to test every patient with cold or flu-like symptoms for the virus. 

Of the 202 close contacts in Shanghai's 11 cases, only two people have exhibited flu-like symptoms and they have both tested negative for H7N9. 

Sun Lei, director of the Shanghai Agricultural Commission, said yesterday: "The H7N9 bird flu viruses detected from poultry were mainly imported infections, as all poultry samples being detected with H7N9 bird flu virus were from wholesale or retail market but no samples from local poultry farms tested positive for the virus." 

"All poultry farms are clean of the virus, so products from local farms are safe to eat," he said. 

Shanghai consumes about 130 million birds a year. Only 20 percent is from local farms, while 80 percent is imported from other provinces, mainly from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, the only other regions reporting H7N9 bird flu cases.

Sweden: Pork found in Ikea's elk lasagne

First horsemeat in the beef, and now this. Via The Local.se, the latest chapter in an odd story: Pork found in Ikea's elk lasagne. Excerpt:

Swedish furniture giant Ikea halted sales of elkmeat lasagnes across all its European stores after a batch tested positive for pork in a Belgian lab. 

It was in late March that Belgian authorities discovered that the elk mince, produced by Swedish food manufacturer Familjen Dafgård and sold at Ikea stores, contained a bit over 1 percent pork, which is the limit for contamination of meat products. 

An estimated 10,000 tonnes of lasagne stored in the furniture giant's central warehouse and at its department stores have been blocked for sale, reported Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) on Saturday. 

Ikea also withdrew a total of 17,600 packages of lasagne from its stores. All were produced at the Dafgård factory at the time the contamination is thought to have taken place. 

Anders Lennartsson, head of sustainability at Ikea, told SvD that it is not yet clear how many packages of the pork-contaminate elk lasagne have been bought by customers, but he believes it's a question of "small volumes". 

"The elkmeat lasagne production only started in January. Most products that could have traces of pork are in our warehouses and have not yet reached the department stores," said Lennartsson.

OCHA on the situation in Haiti

Via ReliefWeb, OCHA has published Haiti Humanitarian Bulletin, Issue 28 - March 2013. Click through to download the PDF. The highlights:

• Humanitarian aid insufficient to fight hunger in Haiti. 

• Scarcity of drinking water in Belle – Anse. 

• Threats of forced evictions. 

• Boosting resilience to disasters in Haiti? Decline in new cholera cases. 

• Solar lamps for women’s safety.

The bulletin also has more detailed information on cholera than MSPP provides; while cases are declining, OCHA is worried that the impending rainy season will trigger an increase.

China: Last of the dead pigs?

Via Shanghai Daily: Pig removal done.

Shanghai has mostly completed the work of fishing dead pigs from the Huangpu River, except for along the border between Shanghai and Zhejiang Province, city spokesman Xu Wei said yesterday. 

The city didn't release the number of carcasses found yesterday, if any. On Thursday, the total was 11,257. 

Xu said Shanghai plans to set up an emergency system to help ensure water safety.

The dead pigs in China's water supply

Via The Guardian, a detailed look at the problem: Rivers of blood: the dead pigs rotting in China's water supply. Excerpt:

Standing on the quay, Mrs Wu jokes that there are more pigs than fish in Jiapingtang river. But she isn't smiling. The 48-year-old fisherwoman, who lives in Xinfeng, a sleepy country village, recalls splashing about in the river as a child on sticky summer days. Today it is inky black, covered in a slick of lime green algae, and it smells like a blocked drain. 

"Look at the water, who would dare to jump in?" says Wu. At her feet a dead piglet bobs on the river's surface, bouncing against the shore. 

This area of Zhejiang province, 60 miles from Shanghai, has become the subject of public and media scrutiny after more than 16,000 dead pigs were found in tributaries of the city's river, the Huangpu, a source of tapwater. As clean-up efforts wind down, mystery surrounds the cause of the pigs' demise and their appearance in the river. 

As public concerns about water safety grow, what has emerged is a picture of a rural region marred by catastrophic environmental damage, inherent malpractice and a black market meat trade. 

The first pigs were spotted on 7 March and were soon traced to Jiaxing through tags in their ears. Early tests show they carry porcine circovirus, a common disease among hogs not known to be infectious to humans. Shanghai's municipal water department maintains that the water meets the national standard, but hasn't said much more. 

Official opacity has only embittered a public who are increasingly vocal about environmental gripes. "A sluggish response, a lack of disclosure of official data and muddled information has done nothing to quell our doubts," says Weibo (a microblog) user diamondyangxiaowu. "In this environmental crisis China's rivers are facing, there's no time to dally." 

For Mrs Wu and her community it may be too late. Over the last decade she has witnessed the near collapse of her livelihood as pig farming in this region has prospered. Her house, a one-story breezeblock box, sits next to Jiapingtang river. Ten wooden flat-bottomed boats with makeshift roofs of plastic and tarpaulin are tethered to the quay. 

It is on these boats that Wu and her fellow villagers head out on to Jiaxing's network of waterways, though these days they are more likely to do clear-up work for local authorities than fish. A fisherman doing cleaning work from 7am-5pm seven days a week can earn up to 10,000 yuan (£1,000) a year, with an extra 150 yuan (£10.50) a day for carcasses. 

"A decade ago this village was prosperous and we lived a comfortable life," says Wu. She is dressed in a leopard-print padded jacket and black wellington boots – her work gear. "We paid for our houses by ourselves, sent our children to good schools and supported the elderly. Now things are a mess."

China: No threat from Sichuan dead duck dumping: official

Thanks to Bruce Weaver for sending a link to a story I should have picked up sooner. Bruce's link is a to a HuffPost story; here's the original March 25 Xinhua report: No threat from Sichuan dead duck dumping: official.

A local official said Monday that rotten ducks found floating in a river in Pengshan County of southwest China's Sichuan Province have been disposed of safely and will pose no threat to human and livestock along the river banks. 

More than 1,000 ducks had been fished out of the Pengshan section of the Nanhe River as of Monday morning, said Liang Weidong, an official with the county's publicity office. 

Tucked in some 50 plastic woven bags, the corpses were disinfected and buried three meters underground in a designated area, according to Liang. 

The dead birds have been handled safely, posing no threat to local residents and livestock, the official added. 

Local authorities have not identified the cause of their death, and further investigation is under way to identify any farm responsible for the dumping. 

The incident comes after the discovery earlier this month of thousands of dead pigs floating in the Huangpu River in Shanghai, an incident that has sparked great panic as well as satire among the public. 

The Nanhe River, along the middle reaches of the Minjiang River in Sichuan, is not a source of drinking water, according to the local authorities.

China: 191 more dead pigs in Huangpu

Via Shanghai Daily: 191 more dead pigs in Huangpu.

The total number of dead pigs removed from the Huangpu River in Shanghai climbed to 10,924, after 191 more pig carcasses were plucked out of the water over the weekend. 

 City spokesman Xu Wei said boats haven't fished out any carcasses from the main tributaries of the Huangpu River in the past two days. The cleanup is almost done in Shanghai, except for along the border between Shanghai and Zhejiang Province. 

Authorities said tap water produced by water plants in the affected area was safe.

Meanwhile, Laurie Garrett cites a BBC News report from March 20, saying the total number of pig carcasses is close to 14,000.