Taiwan's Council of Agriculture (COA) will hold a large exercise on October 19 in which health, customs and transportation officials will simulate fighting an outbreak of avian influenza, COA officials said on Sunday.

According to reports from Taipei, participants will simulate killing affected birds, burying or burning the culled birds, and managing their own health risks, according to officials.

As the highly infectious disease has been detected in recent years in various parts of the world, mainly in East Asia, the COA said Taiwan must increase its preparations against a possible epidemic caused by the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

There have already been many deaths in East Asia from H5N1 caught from birds, but it is thought that transmission of the strain between people is difficult.

Taiwan health experts warned that if the virus mutates into a strain that can not only jump to humans but be passed from person to person, it could cause widespread chaos and heavy casualties.

In Europe, the H5N1 strain was confirmed in Turkey and Romania last week and both countries are slaughtering thousands of birds to prevent its spread, according to Reuters on October 15.

The Chinese mainland and other countries in the region have already reported cases of H5N1 and now is the season for migratory birds, which have been identified as spreading the virus to local populations of domestic and wild fowl, to pass through Taiwan on their journey south, officials said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2005)