International scientists said yesterday that a unified naming system for avian influenza virus is necessary to avoid confusion, such as the stir caused by a recent research paper that said southern China was the source of a virulent new strain of bird flu.

The call was made after domestic and international influenza experts had roundtable discussions from Monday to Friday in Beijing. Participants included the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Scientists agreed that the strain named in the report, which has been called the Fujian virus or the Clade III virus, was not new, David Heymann, WHO's acting assistant director-general for communicable diseases, told a press conference on Friday.

The disputed article, published in late October in an international scientific journal, said a new dominant bird flu strain called H5N1 Fujian-like was found in almost all poultry outbreaks and some human cases in southern China, and was now also the primary version of the virus in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.

Heymann, however, said the virus was identified in 2005 and has links to other strains identified as early as 2004. It has been found in animals and people in parts of southern China, Malaysia and Laos, he said.

"This virus, which is referred to by many different names, has been circulating for some time ... this virus has not increased significantly the threat to human health," Heymann said.

"It is very important that the naming of viruses doesn't stigmatise countries, regions or peoples," he said.

No timetable was given for the creation of a standard naming system.

Authors of the paper included Guan Yi of the University of Hong Kong and Robert Webster of St Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The paper also said China's current poultry vaccines appeared to be ineffective against the so-called Fujian strain. It suggested that China's widespread vaccination programme caused the virus to mutate into a more virulent form.

Heymann said there was no evidence linking the emergence of the strain with the vaccination of poultry in China.

However, he advised China to strengthen its supervision over poultry in a fixed time period.

"China is an important partner of international co-operation in avian influenza," Heymann said.

Keiji Fukuda, co-ordinator of the WHO Global Influenza Programme Department of Alert and Response, said he believed vaccine measures in China were effective.

China rejected the existence and spread of the so-called Fujian-like virus last month.

"The data used in the article is erroneous and the research methodology is unscientific. The conclusions of the paper are untenable," Jia Youling, China's chief veterinary officer, has said.

(China Daily 12/09/2006 page2)