As the debate rages on about the implications of a 3600 year old Caucasoid mummy in Xinjiang, a team of international scientists has verified that the oldest stash of marijuana was excavated along with a 2,700 year old “light haired, blue-eyed” mummy near Turpan. According to an American pharmacologist (working, of course, with a Canadian firm), the 789 grams of dried cannabis leaves were definitely for “psychoactive purposes,” though the mode of consumption remains a mystery as “there were no pipes or other tools” in the tomb of the Shaman. Many of the scientists were apparently extremely impressed with how well-preserved the leaves were, which sort of explains why they were so quick to look for some paraphernalia. Also a mystery, in my eyes, are the techniques one uses to ascertain eye color from a 2,700 year old dry corpse. Do mummies still have eyes after all that time? Someone enlighten me, please.

For me, this is a delightful little monkey wrench thrown into the intellectual machines tasked with establishing the Chinese-ness of pre-Han dynasty Xinjiang peoples, like Professor Pan of the Central Asia Research Institute. Granted, it’s not that big of a deal, but I still find it hilarious that following the logic Chinese scholars apply to these mummies, smoking a dooby now ranks alongside the compass, printing, paper, and gunpowder as vital contributions by the Chinese to modern civilization. “I hope we can avoid some of the political liabilities of the issue,” says Russo, the American scientist, well aware of the ubiquitous political impediments to international research in Xinjiang after having been forced by the authorities to jump through hoops for 10 months before making any significant research gains. I agree too. Now that the research has arrived at its first major conclusion maybe fenqing and Uyghur nationalists alike can all congregate in Xinjiang and celebrate, together, one of China’s oldest traditions.

Hat tip to commenter Kahraman – thanks for the heads up!

Poultry culling operations in the Turpan high-pathocenicity bird flu epidemic zone were completely finished by 6:15 early morning on the 5th of January and a total of 35170 domestic poultry were culled. On January 1, only 3050 chickens were culled; from the 3rd to the 4th 26835 domestic poultry were culled, including 23388 chickens from 8 different poultry farms and 2997 assorted poultry from 254 personal households, consisting of 1224 chickens (including 439 fighting cocks), 1726 pigeons, 9 ducks, and 38 geese. At 1:30 in the morning on the 5th, culling operations at two remaining chicken farms left in the epidemic zone began and culled an additional 3635 animals, bringing to a close a thorough and incident-free sterilization.

One almost senses a sort of weird glee in the way the author decides to incorporate the razor accurate culling statistics into the article – right down to the poor 9 ducks. After the culling operations were wrapped up authorities conducted sterilization operations at poultry slaughter houses, distribution centers, and poultry feces dumps within 3-8 kilometers of the epidemic zone.

Xinhua Network, Beijing

On December 29th of last year, a suspected outbreak of the bird flu was discovered in the Putao Community on Gaochang Road in the city of Turpan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. On the 3rd of January, 2008, the National Bird Flu Research Laboratory positively diagnosed the virus as a strain of the H5N1 high-pathogenicity Asian bird flu.

The outbreak resulted in the death of 4850 poultry; 29383 birds were culled as a preventative measure.

After the outbreak, the Ministry of Agriculture and the XUAR People’s Government immediately organized and implemented multiple emergency response measures in accordance with the relevant suspected-case requirements. Currently, the epidemic is under effective control.

Reuters, eager to continue tracking the progress of what has been touted as the precursor to the next “world pandemic,” has picked up on the story and ais republishing the Xinhua information alongside additional information to illustratethe outbreak’s larger context. Their article on the subject notes, for example, that the last outbreak resulted in the infection of a father and son pair in Jiangsu province in early December, leading to the death of the 24-year old son.

Interestingly, the article on the outbreak in the China Daily, Xinhua’s English language mouthpiece, adds a few more tidbits of information not present on Xinhua’s Mandarin version translated above.

Vice Minister of Agriculture Yin Chengjie said in early December that the possibilities of regional bird flu outbreaks were “very high” in the winter and coming spring, and the situation was “not optimistic” as there had been cases of poultry infection in a “relatively large contaminated area”.

The Spring Festival in early February is drawing near and more poultry will be transported and slaughtered for festival feasts, which could facilitate transmission of the disease.

Local departments have been ordered to step up immunization measures ahead of the festival, and monitor bird activities along the border and in water areas by increasing sample test numbers and frequencies of examinations.

First, some pessimistic words by the Vice Minister of Agriculture spoken around the time of the Jiangsu man’s death. The minister’s “its only gets worse from here” forecast a month ago seems verified by this rather large poultry outbreak, which thankfully appears not to have jumped to any human individuals. However, increased contact with poultry during upcoming festivals adds an unwelcome element to the unpredictable cocktail of factors that determines the rise or fall of a deadly epidemic. The best thing the government can do at this point is heighten awareness through more frequent and comprehensive testings; Xinjiang residents and expats, on the other hand, should probably stay away from poultry farms and other likely locations with piles of dead chickens.