As far as bird flu goes we are in danger - but only of overreacting!

Feb 28 2006

According to an official from the World Animal Health Organisation (WHO), banning imports of poultry from bird flu-affected areas is overreacting to the bird flu situation.

Alex Thiermann, president of the standard-setting committee for the organisation, says sensible precautions, such as quickly culling birds in affected areas, can work to control outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza, but although wild birds may play a role in spreading the virus, they are not the key to controlling its spread.

Thiermann says that countries that are banning imports of poultry from bird flu-affected areas are overreacting, because the meat is safe to eat and their reactions far exceed what is science-based and have further complicated the losses to the industry.

At a meeting of avian influenza experts Thiermann said eating chicken is not what is going to kill people.

Christine Lagarde the French Trade Minister says to date 20 countries have imposed curbs on imports of French poultry following an outbreak of H5N1 at a turkey farm in the east of the country last week.

This is despite the World Health Organization emphasising that properly cooked poultry does not spread bird flu, and no one has become infected by handling chicken meat.

But the poultry embargoes have resulted in sales plummeting further with more countries blocking imports as the virus spreads among flocks in as many as 19 new countries over the past month.

Thiermann believes the overreaction is a result of a lack of trust between the public in many countries in what their government says.

In Italy has seen sales of poultry drop by 70 percent because of a historical mistrust of government, says Thiermann.

According to Thiermann most countries were now responding appropriately to outbreaks of the virus by surveillance, culling poultry immediately and sealing off the movement of poultry within affected areas.

Thiermann says although monitoring wild birds for signs of the virus is important it is impossible to try to control the spreading virus in wildfowl, and once the disease appears, whether it is carried by wildlife is incidental, because it will inevitably reach the poultry.

He says swans have been the latest sentinels in Europe, and there is some evidence that wild mallards may be carrying the virus, however the control has to take place in poultry.

Thiermann says developing countries are more at risk because they lack a good veterinary system, therefore veterinary infrastructures must be improved in such countries.

He cites Croatia, Romania, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea as good examples, while less affluent Nigeria and Indonesia and others remain a problem which is related to a lack of veterinary infrastructure.

To date the H5N1 virus has killed or forced the culling of more than 200 million birds globally.

According to WHO figures it has infected 173 people, killing 93 of them. People at present are only infected when they handle sick or dead birds.

The ongoing fear however is that the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die.

According to reports the virus has been detected in poultry on a farm near Baku in Azerbaijan.

This is the first outbreak in the country in domestic birds but apparently mass culling has taken place and quarantine restrictions imposed in the area.

Whether the virus found was the deadly H5N1 strain has not been confirmed.

The H5N1 virus had been found recently in wild birds on the Caspian coast and the population there have been advised to prevent contact between domestic poultry and wild birds and have recommended the destruction of dead birds.

The bird flu virus has also been detected in neighboring Georgia and Russia.