Chinese Sars patient says he never ate civet

The Chinese TV producer who contracted Sars had never eaten civet cat, state media reported yesterday, as thousands of the animals were culled on fears they may carry a form of the virus that can jump to humans.

In the Philippines, authorities said a woman suspected of contracting Sars while working as a maid in Hong Kong had pneumonia and not the deadly flu-like virus, easing fears of regional contagion.

"This is not a case of Sars," Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit told a news conference after the government received the results of tests on the unidentified 42-year-old woman.

China's official Xinhua news agency said the only contact with wildlife the Sars patient could recall was with a mouse he threw out of a window.

The victim, surnamed Luo, was confirmed as having Sars this week and is due to be released on today from hospital in the southern province of Guangdong, where the disease emerged in November 2002 and went on to kill 800 people around the world.

Only one of the 81 people who had contact with Luo remained in quarantine, the Health Ministry said. State television said that person would be released today as well.

Chinese health authorities said a gene sample from the 32-year-old man resembled that of a coronavirus found in civets, a local delicacy.

China has given a Saturday deadline for the slaughter of about 10,000 civets, a course of action that has worried the World Health Organisation which fears the cull could help spread the disease.

"Still unaware of the cause of his catching Sars, environmentalist Luo said he had never touched or eaten civet cats in his life and recalled only having thrown a baby mouse out of the window by hand," Xinhua said.

The China Daily said the civet extermination was being carried out by 'braising and steaming' the animals and quoted experts as saying releasing them into the wild was not an option. "During the whole process, there is no direct contact between the employees and the animals," it said.

Guangdong authorities have said the civets are being drowned in chemical disinfectant and then incinerated.

While China has openly reported on the case since it was first revealed, the newspaper that first broke the story - ahead of the Health Ministry's announcement - has come under scrutiny.

A leading Sars reporter at Southern Metropolis Daily had been taken off the beat and a Hong Kong-based rights group said yesterday a top editor was detained by prosecutors for eight hours on Tuesday. A newspaper official denied the report.