UN dismisses 'bird flu in pigs' reports [View All]

[rooboy]

The United Nations' food body has dismissed a report from UN representatives in Vietnam which pointed to an escalation in the bird flu crisis.

A Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) spokesman in Hanoi had announced that the bird flu virus had been found in the nasal cavities of several Vietnamese pigs.

However a FAO scientist in Rome says there is no evidence of avian flu in pigs, saying the Hanoi tests were not up to standard.

An appearance of avian flu in pigs would be a dynamic development in the crisis which has killed millions of poultry and 18 people.

Pigs have a similar immune system to humans and suffer from a wide variety of diseases which also infect people.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1040031.htm