November 22, 2005

Bird flu worries take a toll on China's menus

ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES A Peking duck is taken out of the oven at a downtown Beijing restaurant and is ready for carving. Since the H5N1 avian-flu virus spread to six Chinese provinces this month, Chinese diners have started avoiding chicken, duck and other fowl.

BEIJING — On an unusually warm evening for late November, crowds of people were out trolling the colorful food stands of the Wangfujing Street night market.

The once-popular chicken skewers have all but disappeared from the menu. There's not much demand for poultry these days.

Since the H5N1 avian flu virus spread to six Chinese provinces this month, Chinese diners have started avoiding chicken, duck and other fowl. Some large hotels catering to Americans have even cancelled their traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

On Tuesday evening, both floors of the Beijing Style Roast Duck restaurant were empty. Bored-looking clerks in green uniforms stood by waiting for customers.

"It's probably best not to eat it," said Li Jin, 23, who came to the night market with three friends to snack on barbequed meat. "But it's an individual choice."

"It takes a high temperature to kill the virus," his friend, Wang Wenping, chimed in. Wang, 23, held a cigarette in one hand and a skewer of grilled lamb stomach in the other. "As for me, I don't care. If it tastes good I'll eat it."

There's no evidence that people have contracted bird flu from eating poultry, and experts say that cooked meat poses no risk.

Chinese authorities are combating the deadly virus with bird vaccines, quarantines, blockades around outbreak sites, slaughter of infected birds and other measures. China is trying to vaccinate all poultry in the country. Beijing has closed its live bird markets.

So far the virus has hit birds in six provinces. China has confirmed two human fatalities from the virus: a pregnant woman in Anhui, and a girl in Hunan whose brother also had H5N1 but recovered.

In a country that experienced the SARS crisis two years ago, bird flu does not immediately trigger a panic.

Aside from eating less poultry, people haven't altered their normal routines.

"Some people say you shouldn't care too much about this problem," said Li. "There is already a vaccine for birds."

China is also working on a vaccine for humans, which it says worked effectively on mice. Researchers plan to begin clinical tests on humans later this month.

In the meantime, stray pigeons caught in downtown Beijing will pay a price: they'll be caged until the bird flu threat is over.

Kristi Heim: 206-464-2718 or kheim@seattletimes.com

Posted by Kristi Heim at November 22, 2005 01:35 PM

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