Taiwan - Taiwan prosecutors probe handling of H5N2 case

Huang Li-wei, prosecutor in Taipei District Prosecutors Office, went to Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) to investigate whether Hsu Tien-lai, former director-general of BAPHIQ, committed a dereliction of duty, yesterday.

Prosecutors are examining some official files belonging to the bureau, and have questioned a bureau official to understand how the quarantine officials handled a tip-off by independent film producer Lee Hui-ren over the alleged cover-up of bird flu outbreaks in the country.

Gao Jyh-peng, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator, suggested that Lee should be invited to the Legislative Yuan to speak with officials of the Council of Agriculture (COA) to see who committed the alleged dereliction of duty.

Chen Bao-ji, minister of the COA, stated that the first priority is to contain the H5N2 outbreak. After the disease is under control, Chen will investigate whether any official in the COA committed inappropriate actions.

The COA admitted yesterday that highly pathogenic bird flu discovered in Taiwan in 2004 was not eliminated, contrary to previous COA statements. Lai Shiow-suey, professor emeritus of National Taiwan University, maintains that three years ago incidents of highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu were covered up by government officials. Lee sent a dead chicken from a Changhua farm to the COA on Dec 27, 2011.

Despite having allegedly been given the location of the farm, it still took the COA 70 days to confirm that chickens from the farm were infected with highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu.

Huang Kuo-ching, deputy director-general of BAPHIQ, clarified yesterday that the information was imprecise and the COA had to spend time to find the exact location of the farm. It required 20 days for the test results to come out, and additional time for experts to meet and discuss the results.

Tests conducted by the COA concluded that chickens at the Changhua farm were infected with the highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu. Instead of taking action to contain the disease, Hsu held a meeting of experts to discuss the results. The meeting did not ascertain whether the Changhua case was definitely the high pathogenic form of H5N2, citing the fact that there were no massive deaths of chickens at the Changhua farm.

The second meeting of experts held by the COA, however, concluded that the Changhua case was in fact of the highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu. The COA stated that as soon as it received this result on March 1, they reported the results to the Executive Yuan.

Lee stated yesterday that the inspection methods published by the COA in 2003 did not mention that massive deaths are a necessary condition to conclude that the case was of the highly pathogenic variety.

Lee disclosed in his documentary that he did make contact with professors attending the two meetings held by the COA. Professors attending these meeting were reluctant to admit their participation.

DPP legislators suggested that the government should praise Lee for his efforts and courage to disclose the H5N2 cases.

Meanwhile, the COA said that it did not cover up an outbreak of bird flu, noting that it had followed standard procedure in handling the recent outbreak of the H5N2 avian influenza.

Huang Kwo-ching, deputy director-general of the council's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, rebutted the accusation yesterday, saying that the council needed to await the results of lab tests and weigh other factors.

Huang said the council had carried out an inspection and ran tests after learning that an egg-laying chicken farm in Changhua reported an outbreak of the disease on Dec 27, 2011.

“After the preliminary results came out, we reported it to the World Organization for Animal Health January 10,” Huang said, citing this as evidence that the council was not trying to hide a potential outbreak of bird flu.

Wang Cheng-teng, the council's vice minister, however, said Hsu resigned as a result of the public panic that ensued upon news of the outbreaks.

To make a final judgment on whether the outbreak was caused by a highly pathogenic H5N2 strain, two factors must be taken into consideration — the lab test results and the actual fatality rate of chickens, Huang said.

Although the virus was confirmed in the lab tests, Huang said, the fatality rate for the chickens at the Changhua farm was around 0.05 percent, lower than the normal fatality rate.

But on February 7, the H5N2 infections were detected at the farm in Tainan. After running follow-up tests, the council discovered a fatality rate of 17 per cent among chickens at the Tainan farm, Huang said.

Citing the results, “the experts invited to our meetings on the issue reached a consensus” that the two cases needed to be considered together, Huang said.

On the basis of risk control, the council decided to announce the confirmation of the outbreak of the H5N2 avian influenza, Huang said.

Wang said no case of humans infected with the H5N2 avian influenza has been discovered in Taiwan or in other countries.

“The disease is highly contagious among livestock,” Wang added.

Echoing Wang's remarks, Chou Jih-haw, deputy director general of the Centers for Disease Control, said there is no safety issue regarding chickens and eggs.

They are safe to eat, “as long as they are fully cooked,” Chou said.

Chou said the health department will keep monitoring the situation to see if there are further cases of the H5N2 avian influenza.

The Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that an outbreak of the H5N2 strain of avian influenza in Taiwan is highly pathogenic among birds but there is insufficient evidence to prove that the strain is zoonotic.

DOH Deputy Minister Lin Tzou-yien said outbreaks like the recent H5N2 infections in two chicken farms in the southern city of Tainan and central county of Changhua have occurred before in the United States, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, the Middle East and South Africa among turkeys and ducks.

He said H5N2 is different from the H5N1 strain, which has infected 590 people globally and killed 349, mostly in Southeast Asia.

Based on the global epidemic situation and analyses of reports, Lin said, there is no convincing evidence that suggests the H5N2 avian virus can be transmitted to people via birds.

He said nine people at the infected Changhua farm had all tested negative for avian flu.

Blood samples from 29 of 38 people at the Tainan farm had been collected, Lin added, saying that his department will collect samples from the other nine and continue to monitor their health.

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