November 7, 2005

UN FAO says need to contain bird flu in poultry

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) officials said there was a need to contain bird flu in poultry, in order to prevent or delay the virus from mutating into a deadly strain that could jump from human to human.

Louise Fresco, FAO assistant director-general for agriculture, said successful containment of bird flu in poultry would depend on "collaboration, transparency, information sharing, disease tracking, sharing about the virus strain and strengthening national veterinary services."

The FAO approach involved three steps: disease prevention by implementing biosecurity measures at the farm and market level; improving the capacity for disease surveillance and detection; and taking immediate eradication measures once the disease was detected.

Fresco added that more research was needed to find ways to vaccinate chickens and domestic ducks against bird flu, other than through injections, which were hard to manage on small farms in poor regions.

However, she warned that the virus could not be contained in migratory birds, and no place in the world was perfectly safe at the moment. As such, there was a need to monitor wild birds, track the virus spread and contain it where possible, she said.

FAO estimated about US$425 million would be required for anti-bird flu measures at the farm level, with about half of the amount needed to raise preparedness and monitoring. 

Fresco said so far the US, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Switzerland have pledged a total of US$30 million.