Improving farming practice is fundamental to curb the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu, which needs to be stressed more as a long-term solution, said a senior official with the World Health Organization here Saturday.

"We cannot kill all the chickens and ducks to prevent bird flu from spreading among them and to humans, therefore we have to make sure the chickens, ducks and humans do not mingle together," said Dr. Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific.

Segregation is one of the fundamentally important methods, Omi told Xinhua in an interview, "but we cannot do it overnight as China has a huge poultry population."

"That's why we have to step up improvement of the primitive farming practice in China's rural regions, especially the backyard feeding of chickens and ducks in many rural households," he said.

As Omi noted that China has 14.2 billion poultry, and most Chinese rural families have close proximity with chickens and ducks, which are kept in their backyards or even houses.

The official also stressed surveillance, timely reporting and diagnosis of bird flu outbreaks at grassroots level need to be strengthened.

WHO has suggested the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture train more health and agriculture staff in rural areas, so that they may help with the monitoring and detection of new cases.

China has reported six human cases of bird flu this year, involving two fatalities, and 31 outbreaks in poultry. It has reported fewer cases in December.

"It is too early to say the epidemic is under control," said Omi.

But he noted that he appreciates China's collaboration with WHO and other international communities on the issue of bird flu.

On Thursday, Omi and the WHO delegation including Henk Bekedam, WHO representative in China, Lee Chin-Kei, project officer of WHO in China and Roy Wadia, WHO information officer in China, congratulated Hunan for successfully treating a nine-year-old boy who survived a bout of the flu.

They met with local health officials in Hunan and called for the prompt and quick detection of human cases of bird flu and enhancement of the reporting of animal outbreaks.

"The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture have shared a few virus samples with us and other international organizations, which is very good. I hope they could share information more promptly and more regularly in the future," he said.

Source: Xinhua