Farmers in southern China, probable source of SARS outbreak, unaware of risks

Guangdong, April 14 1. Mid shot of pig walking 2. Houses on river 3. Various of people at farm 4. Pan from river to pigs 5. Pan from pigs in pen to garbage 6. Pig with chicken 7. Garbage 8. Tracking shot as camera walks along pigpens 9. Pig urinating Hong Kong April 16 10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Malik Peiris, Department of Microbiology, University of Hong Kong: "This seems to be a new virus coming from an animal source, but at this point in time, on the basis of that information, we can not predict which animal it is coming from" Guangdong, April 14 11. Pigs snorting 12. Pigs sleeping 13. SOUNDBITE: (Cantonese) Xu Yan-cheung, Pig Farmer: "I haven't heard of atypical pneumonia and I don't know if you can get it from pigs." 14. SOUNDBITE: (Cantonese) Lai Lo-cheung, Pig Farmer: " Pigs don't usually get sick." 15. Cleaning trough 16. Water running from pen into lake 17. Farmer pumping water, pan to pigs 18. Pig with chicken Hong Kong, April 17 19. Pigs being sprayed with water inside shed 20. SOUNDBITE: (Cantonese) Kwok Chau-sing, Pig expert: "The pigs will get pneumonia and usually they have diarrhea. Sometimes we see the symptoms. We use antibiotics to cure them. If we find they have pneumonia we quarantine them and inject them with antibiotics and give them food with good nutrients. This is sufficient." Hong Kong April 16. 21. Various of food safety hearing inside Legco 22. SOUNDBITE (English) Fred Li, Legislator: "Agriculture department, the local Hong Kong governments keep a really close eye on standard, hygiene standard on those farms" 23. Tilt down from feeding machinery to pigs 24. Pigs suckling on sow 25. Tight shot of baby pig STORYLINE: Scientists suspect the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS virus, first came to man from farm animals in Guangzhou, in Guangdong province. While this new fact is helping them to understand the illness and search for treatments, very little is being done to protect farmers from catching such diseases from their livestock. In China, limited information is distributed about preventing diseases and most farmers don't know the risks they face. Farmers live very close to their livestock and most farms do not have proper hygiene measures in place. It is believed that previous epidemics in the last century also started out on farms in southern China. Such pandemics killed hundreds of thousands of people. But the nature of the viruses and their mutations mean that science has to treat each case as new and unique. In late 1997 an avian flu killed many people in southern China and a few in Hong Kong. Birds were slaughtered en masse to keep the flu from spreading to more humans. But no such solution has presented itself with this outbreak of SARS. What is clear is that farmers in southern China are much more likely to catch a virus than their counterparts in Hong Kong. The government in Hong Kong has strict standards for farm hygiene and strong inspection regimes. Legislators have taken the latest SARS threat seriously and frequently meet to address the possibility of transmission. Farmers in Hong Kong have better access to information than their mainland counterparts and therefore recognise pneumonia among their livestock is a serious threat to their livelihood as well as their own health. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/fcfeafb899ca201e93a9122d8e253c2f Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork