Ripe for a new outbreak

South China where people, farm animals and fowls live in close proximity is the perfect breeding ground for new flu strains, reports JONATHAN ANSFIELD. 

FOWL breeder Chen Huaping thinks Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), as flu-like infections go, is mere chickenfeed. He witnessed the wrath of bird flu – potentially more infectious – last October, when a freshly bought yellow duckling dropped dead in his backyard 30km outside the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Within a week, the bug had wiped out 300 of his 500 baby ducks.