China kills market birds as flu found in pigeons

China kills market birds as flu found in pigeons
Chickens are sold at a market on Thursday, April 4, 2013, in Shanghai, China. (AP Photo)
BEIJING (AP) — China has started slaughtering all poultry at a Shanghai market after a new bird flu strain that has killed five people was detected in pigeons being sold there.

The mass bird killing is the first so far as the Chinese government responds to the H7N9 strain of bird flu, which has sickened 14 people, many critically, along the eastern seaboard in its first known infections of people. The first cases were announced Sunday.


The Agriculture Ministry confirmed late Thursday that the H7N9 virus had been detected in live pigeons that were on sale for their meat at a produce market in Shanghai. The killing of birds at the Huhuai market in Shanghai started Thursday night after the city's agricultural committee ordered it in a notice also posted on its website.



Experts urged Chinese health authorities to keep testing healthy birds, saying the H7N9 virus can infect birds without causing disease, making it harder to detect than the H5N1 bird flu virus that is more familiar to Asian countries. H5N1 set off warnings when it began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003 and has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.


Pigeon is a common type of poultry in Chinese cuisine and the birds are sold live in markets around the country. The Chinese also raise pigeons as pets, but those tend to be a different type.



The latest deaths from the virus confirmed by the government Thursday were a 48-year-old man who transported poultry for a living and a 52-year-old woman, both in Shanghai. The man is one of several among the infected believed to have had direct contact with fowl.


Experts only identified the first cases on Sunday. Some among the 14 confirmed cases fell ill several weeks ago but only now are being classified as having H7N9.

Xinhua said six cases have been confirmed in Shanghai, four in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui.