China’s Drought May Make Birds More Susceptible to Avian Flu

[depakid]

A drought in northern China that has limited drinking water to almost 4 million people may also be making birds more susceptible to the deadly H5N1 avian-flu strain.

The lack of rainfall in Shandong, Shaanxi and other northern provinces since October causes stress for local fowl, said Hong Kong Veterinary Association President Veronica Leong, who specializes in birds. “Any sort of stress would make birds more susceptible to disease,” she said by e-mail today.

Bird flu killed five people in China last month, three of whom were from regions experiencing drought. Lo Wing-Lok, a health adviser to the Hong Kong government, said yesterday China has an outbreak of bird flu among poultry that its government hasn’t reported. “As drinking water becomes more scarce for wild birds, they may come into closer contact with domestic fowl, increasing chances of cross-infection,” said Nie Ben, agricultural commodities manager at Shanghai Continent Futures Co. in Dalian.

The Chinese government last week reported the nation’s fifth bird flu death in 2009. The deaths were in the provinces of Shandong, Hunan, Guangxi, the municipality of Beijing and the Xinjiang autonomous region. Shandong, Xinjiang and Beijing have droughts.

About 3.7 million people and 1.85 million big animals have limited access to drinking water in northern China, the Ministry of Water Resources said on its Web site yesterday. Reduced soil moisture affected an estimated 9.7 million hectares of crops, it said.

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