Guangdong moves to kill civet cats amid SARS fears

Producer: Valarie Tan
First broadcast: 06 January 04, Radio Singapore International

Feng Liuxiang, deputy head of the Guangdong province's health department
said the action to cull civet cats in the region has been approved by the provincial government. Feng estimated that some 10, 000 civet cats will be culled in the campaign. Civet cats, the weasel-like mammals were, among other wildlife, believed to be one of the most likely SARS virus carriers.

But the culling was already ordered by the Guangdong officials, even before World Health Organisation (WHO) had confirmed that the recent patient admitted for SARS symptoms, had contracted the disease. It was also not known whether the 32-year-old freelance TV station worker had consumed or
been in contact with civet cats. A SARS research team in Hong Kong had previously carried out genetic tests on him and found that genetic sequence of his virus was similar to that of civet cats.

Is a similarity in viral genetic sequence enough to justify the culling of these wildlife animals?

Valarie Tan asked the question to Sunny Lo (SL) Associate Professor, at the
Department of Politics, University of Hong Kong

SL: I'm not an expert in this particular area. But I think the Guangdong Provincial Government played safe this time, because the last time the provincial government was heavily criticised for being negligent and for being not reporting to the central government for the outbreak of SARS. So this time, we can see the Guangdong Government is making a very decisive action to slaughter some of these civets which are supposedly carrying some sort of SARS virus.

But last year, the WHO released a report, saying that there's no direct connection between human infection and civet cats. So why are they still taking action on civet cats?

SL: I think the Guangdong Provincial authorities have been cooperating with the Univeristy of Hong Kong Medical School and they have found that there seems to be some genetic coincidence between the civet cats and SARS. So that's the reason why they are deeply worrying about the outbreak and the further spread of SARS in which Guangdong and even China cannot afford to envisage such a scenario.

WHO experts have said that people are infected when handling, breeding or slaughtering the animals and animals placed under stressful conditions such as a culling instinctively shed more viruses. Doesn't this recent move to cull civet cats ironically put China at a higher risk then, since personnel conducting the civet cat slaughter might be exposed to the disease and increase the risk of spreading the virus?

SL: I don't think so. Because southern Chinese like to consume wild animals. So here the slaughtering of civet cats is similar to what the Government did in Hong Kong several years ago when it decided to slaughter one million chickens which were infected with H1N5 virus. I think the problem in South China is that the birds chickens even cats all these animals are potential virus carriers. So that's the reason why the local government is taking such a decision. And I think it's a very wise move. I don't think that it will really help the virus to be spread to other people.

Are they taking protective measures when they go out and slaughter the animals?

SL: I think the Guangdong authorities have taken precautionary measures and additional measures to protect those health officials who slaughter these civet cats. The WHO also suggested that the Chinese Govt should take samples out of these civet cats before they were slaughtered and the Guangdong governemnt has taken appropriate action.

What will happen to these samples that they take out?

SL: I think the samples will be tested by the Hong Kong Health Authorities together with the Hong Kong Health officials or even the univeristy of Hong Kong Professors. So definitely, the Guangdong government is learning a better lesson from the SARS last year.

Do you think what China is doing now an effective method of prevention? Or it just a plain PR tactic to show the world they're doing something to fight SARS?

SL: I think this time the Chinese govt is doing very well. It s something more than a Public Relations tactic. In a sense it is very transparent very responsive move towards any possible outbreak of SARS. The fact that the Guangdong authorities have installed a kind of communicative mechanism tonot only with Honk Kong but also with WHO is a kind of very, progressive, postive step towards the prevention of SARS.