After killing civets, Chinese city plans to exterminate rats

GUANGZHOU, China (AP) - Rats are the latest target in the dramatic anti-SARS campaign in China, where as many 10,000 civet cats are being slaughtered on fears that some animals might be spreading the disease to humans.

Officials said Wednesday that the entire rat population of the southern city of Guangzhou must be wiped out.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Guangzhou Health Bureau denied a Hong Kong news report that a waitress in a restaurant that serves wild game had tested positive for SARS antibodies, indicating she might have been exposed to the virus.

Rat extermination begins Saturday, said the spokesman, who refused to give his name. That is the government's deadline for killing thousands of civets and related animals seized from wildlife markets in Guangzhou and surrounding Guangdong province.

"Guangzhou's carpet extermination of rats,'' said a headline in the newspaper Information Daily. It said "the whole city united will go about killing rats, not leaving out one household.''

Guangzhou is the site of China's first confirmed SARS case this season, a 32-year-old television producer. The order to kill civets came after genetic tests showed a possible link between the patient and a virus found in the animals. Experts also are investigating whether the man might have been exposed to the virus by rats in his apartment building.

Since late Monday, health authorities in Guangdong have been drowning, electrocuting and incinerating hundreds of civets _ a local delicacy _ and related animals seized from wildlife markets. The government says the order affects some 10,000 civets.

The government says the television producer has recovered and should leave the hospital on Thursday. He was hospitalized Dec. 20.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome is believed to have emerged in Guangdong in November 2002, possibly jumping from animals to humans. It killed 58 people in the province and a total of 774 worldwide _ mostly in Asia _ before subsiding in June.

The South China Morning Post newspaper of Hong Kong said civets were found at Guangzhou waitress's restaurant. Citing unnamed sources, it said tests on her showed antibodies to the SARS virus.

"That's not so,'' said the Health Bureau spokesman. "We've already formally said so.'' China's government on Monday denied news reports that the woman, who is hospitalized with pneumonia and a fever, had severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Roy Wadia, a World Health Organization spokesman in Beijing, said the agency was looking into reports about the waitress but couldn't confirm whether she had SARS antibodies.

Wadia noted that WHO experts who are searching for the possible source of the confirmed Guangzhou patient's infection are examining rats from his apartment building. Earlier Chinese news reports said the man had handled a dead rat with chopsticks.

"But as to any confirmed links, there are none yet,'' Wadia said.

Guangzhou holds an annual rat-killing drive, the Health Bureau spokesman said, but this year, "the second goal is to prevent the spread of SARS.'' The spokesman said he didn't know how many rats the city had or how many had been killed in previous years.

Newspapers warned the public to take precautions against infection.

"While killing rats, you must wear disinfected gloves,'' said the newspaper Guangzhou Daily. An illustration showed a gloved man plunging a cage full of rats into a bucket of water. - AP
 

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