Bird Flu 2004

A chicken with the bird flu virus tries to escape from a bonfire of burning chickens Friday, Feb. 6, 2004, in the village of Bolangan, in Bali, Indonesia. In a traditional Hindu cremation ceremony normally reserved for humans, a village in Bali burned 2,500 chickens in attempt to send off the evil spirits that they say brought on the bird flu outbreak.

Bangkok Health Department workers trap and recover pigeons at Sanam Luang Park Friday, Feb. 6, 2004, in downtown Bangkok. Officials were checking for pigeons infected with bird flu. The human toll in Asia's bird flu crisis rose Friday to 18 with two more deaths in Vietnam, while China investigated mysterious reports of finches dropping dead from the sky.

A chicken with bird flu tries to escape from a bonfire of infected chickens Friday, Feb. 6, 2004, in the village of Bolangan, in Bali, Indonesia. In a traditional Hindu cremation ceremony normally reserved for humans, a village in Bali burned 2,500 chickens in attempt to send off the evil spirits that they say brought on the bird flu outbreak.

Shoppers walk past cooked, hanging chicken, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004, in the Chinese market in Bangkok, Thailand. Thailand has launched a campaign to ease public concerns over the safety of eating poultry products by giving away cooked chicken and eggs amid a bird flu outbreak that has killed three people and devastated farms nationwide.

A farm manager administers vaccine to a chick in Saver, north of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 29, 2004. Bangladesh officials said that the country remains free from bird flu. The virus jumped to humans in Vietnam and Thailand, and health officials were concerned it might mutate further and link with regular influenza to create a form that could trigger the next human flu pandemic.

A live chicken paces its cage at a market in Beijing, China, Jan. 30, 2004, as a caretaker puts water in other cages. China's government, stung by criticism of its slow response to SARS last year, is ordering local officials to tell the nation's people quickly and honestly about the bird flu outbreak and how to protect themselves.

A man keeps watch over his chickens at a market in Nanning, in China's southern Guangxi province, Jan. 30, 2004. Chicken prices fell significantly in Nanning after bird flu was confirmed elsewhere in the province earlier in the week.

An official from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority inspects chickens imported from Malaysia at the Tuas entry point to Singapore, Jan. 30, 2004. In efforts to keep avian influenza outbreak from reaching the city-state, increased efforts have been made to check chickens which are imported daily from neighboring Malaysia, its largest supplier of live birds.

A worker cuts chickens at a market in Beijing, China, Jan. 30, 2004.

A woman arranges cages of overcrowded chickens waiting to be slaughtered at a traditional market, Jan. 29, 2004, in Taipei. Taiwan ordered the slaughter of 50,000 chickens and ducks infected with the H5N2 virus, a mild strain of bird flu and less-deadly form of the virus H5N1 spreading through East Asia.

Chickens feed off a dead chicken at a farm near Dingdang in south China's Guangxi region, Jan. 29, 2004. It was not clear what had killed the bird. Chinese authorities had slaughtered more than 140,000 birds in an attempt to stop the spread of bird flu since it was detected in ducks near Dingdang.

A Chinese vendor selects a live chicken for her customer at a market in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jan. 28, 2004. The Malaysian health minister said Malaysia had no reports of avian influenza, the H5N1 virus known as bird flu, either among poultry or humans.

A technician from the Poultry Research Institute applies vaccine to eggs in Karachi, Pakistan, Jan 27, 2004. Avian flu has killed millions of chickens in Pakistan's largest city in recent weeks, and the government has distributed vaccines and ordered farmers to cull poultry at affected farms.

Suwari Wibowo distributes feed to his remaining chickens, Jan. 27, 2004, in the Kaliboto village of Blitar, Indonesia. Wibowo, who usually has 3,000 chickens, has only 1,300 sick chickens left following an outbreak of bird flu.

Hundreds of chicks wait for food at a poultry farm in Malacca, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jan. 27, 2004. Malaysian officials brushed aside fears it might become the next country hit by bird flu, which has swept through most of its neighbors.

A Thai livestock official sprays chemical at empty cages at a poultry market in Bangkok, Thailand, Jan. 27, 2004. A second person has died from bird flu in Thailand, the health ministry said, while the government prepared for an international conference on battling the virus which is racing across Asia.

A poultry vendor waits for customers at a market in downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jan. 27, 2004. Malaysian officials brushed aside fears it might become the next country hit by bird flu, which has swept through most of its neighbors.

Chickens wait to be sold at a market in Beijing, Jan. 26, 2004. China banned all poultry from Thailand and Cambodia after earlier banning birds from Japan, South Korea and Vietnam in an effort to protect the country from the bird flu which has struck Asian nations.

Workers from the Thai livestock department catch chickens during the destruction at a farm in Song Peenong district, Supanburi province, Thailand, Jan. 23, 2004.

A Thai chicken rice vendor prepares her makeshift shop outside the building, background, where the Thai Cabinet members met, Jan. 20, 2004, in Bangkok, Thailand.