China blames US lab for delay in sharing H5N1 samples

HONG KONG, Sep 8 (Reuters) China, which has not shared bird flu virus samples with foreign experts since 2004, has blamed a US laboratory for the long delay, saying it had not put in place import procedures, Chinese media said today.

Citing the Ministry of Agriculture, the official China Daily newspaper said China had already prepared 20 samples for a laboratory at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is accredited by the World Health Organisation.

''But the US lab has not yet completed import procedures, causing an indefinite delay in the shipment of the virus,'' a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying.

China said this week it had not provided international health agencies with samples of bird flu viruses found in the country since late 2004, but was putting in place procedures to do so.

Health experts fear the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has killed at least 140 people worldwide since late 2003, will mutate into a form that can pass easily among humans, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.

Scientists have long insisted that H5N1 samples should be shared to allow experts to trace the evolution of the virus and the geographical spread of any particular strain.

But those calls are not generally observed and the WHO is not empowered to oblige any government to share. Some scientists tend to be proprietary about samples, preferring to publish their findings in prestigious journals first.

The newspaper also quoted a ministry official recounting an incident in 2004, when China sent five samples to the WHO.

''But the WHO made the samples available to foreign researchers who twice published the genetic sequence and other data of four of the five samples without giving credit to Chinese scientists who made the genetic sequencing and did the analysis,'' the newspaper quoted the official as saying.

The WHO and the foreign researchers later apologised to the ministry, according to the newspaper.

Reuters PB GC1013