This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English AgricultureReport.
Chicken farmers in the northeastern United States are dealingwith a form of bird flu different from the virus in Asia. Officialssay it is the form H7. The H7 virus does not have a history ofinfecting people. But it does kill chickens, and it spreads easily.
The virus was first discovered on a farm in Delaware thatprovided live chickens to a market in New York City. Statesofficials ordered that farm and another one to destroy thousands ofchickens. Officials also banned the sales of live chickens. AfterDelaware, cases were reported in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The United States is the biggest producer and exporter ofchicken. The American share of the export market in two-thousand-onewas valued at nearly two-thousand-million dollars. That year,eighteen-percent of all American chicken production was exported.
Because of the H7 outbreak, a number of nations have barredimports of American chicken. Some including Russia barred importsonly from the affected areas. Russia is the biggest importer ofAmerican chicken products.
Others ordered bans on chicken from anywhere in the UnitedStates. These countries included China, Japan, Malaysia, Singaporeand South Korea. The United States Agriculture Department says itdoes not believe the import bans will last long.
In Asia, officials have been working to control the spread of theavian influenza virus known as H5N1. That virus has killed millionsof chickens in several countries. The number of human deaths reachedtwenty last week in Vietnam and Thailand.
The bird flu outbreak in Asia has caused economic damage. TheUnited Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says it will aidsome of the countries affected. The FAO said it would provideone-point-six million dollars to Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan andVietnam.
The agency also joined the World Health Organization in urgingmeasures to fight bird flu. One of these measures is the use ofvaccine medicine to help chickens resist the virus.
Scientists are developing a human vaccine in case the virus takesa form that spreads easily from person to person. Some people haveworried that pigs may also become infected and give the virus tohumans. However, the Food and Agriculture Organization says it hasfound no evidence that the H5N1 virus can infect pigs.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by MarioRitter. This is Steve Ember.