H7N9 Bird Flu Cases Rise To 49, Deaths At 11 In China; Beijing Shuts Poultry Markets

Deadly H7N9 Bird Flu Spreads Into China's Capital; Beijing's First Case Is A 7-Year-Old Girl

Six new cases of the deadly bird flu H7N9 were found in China yesterday, bringing the total in the country to 49, including 11 deaths, the state-run Shanghai Daily Newspaper reported today.

Beijing, China’s capital, announced yesterday that it would close markets selling live poultry and ban live poultry trading in a move to try to halt the spread of the flu. The city’s first H7N9 case was discovered yesterday, a seven-year-old girl who is hospitalized and in stable condition, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday.  

The closure of live poultry markets in Beijing will put new pressure on China’s poultry industry over what to do with chicken that are ready to be sold but that have no buyers.  Shanghai has up to 600,000 such chickens, and city processors have been deep freezing them. (See related post here.)  China is the world’s No. 2 producer of chicken after the United States.

Eastern Chinese cities where most H7N9 cases have been concentrated to date have also closed live poultry markets and taking other precautions to limit the spread of the new virus.  China was the epicenter of the SARS epidemic in 2003 which killed several hundred people worldwide.  Shanghai, a key Chinese international business hub, has seven H7N9 deaths,  more than any other city.

H7N9’s spread has also been affecting the country’s restaurant and food service industries. Some Shanghai schools have taken chicken off their menus. Shares in Yum!, which runs the big global KFC chain, closed up 0.7% on Friday, although it said last week same-store KFC sales in China in March fell 16% from a year earlier amid consumer worries about the flu.

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