H5N1 strain might already have become established in migratory waterfowl, warns Guan Yi
Sars and bird flu hero Guan Yi has broken his silence over a rift with mainland agriculture officials after his studies showed that an H5N1 variant might have sparked a third wave of outbreaks in poultry in the region since last year.
The professor of microbiology at University of Hong Kong said that he was standing by the research, published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on October 31.
Professor Guan, his university colleague Malik Peiris, and Rob Webster, of St Jude Children's Research Hospital in the US, found the strain - called H5N1 Fujian-like - in almost all poultry outbreaks and some human cases in southern China and said it was now the dominant type in Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.
But the findings drew an angry reaction from Jia Youling, director of the Agriculture Ministry's veterinary bureau, who slammed the research paper's data as false and unscientific.
The WHO, which stepped in to resolve the dispute, said the term Fujian-like virus was another name for clade 2.3, also known as the waterfowl virus.
Professor Guan said earlier this week that the dead birds found with H5N1 in Hong Kong since New Year's Eve showed the 'Fujian-like' strain might already have become established in migratory waterfowl.
