April 10, 2008

South Asian nations to work together against bird flu

Senior policy makers and veterinary officials from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Nepal have agreed to work closer together in controlling avian influenza in the region, FAO said today.

The countries agreed to develop a system for rapid sharing of information about the disease at bilateral, multilateral, or sub-regional levels. This would include more regular personal contacts between the Chief Veterinary Officers using telephone, e-mail and the Internet.

The Chief Veterinary Officers of the five countries also agreed to promote the exchange of visits of officials and technical personnel to share experiences in the sub-region.

The countries will aim to harmonise their disease control activities and establish a regional network of avian influenza diagnostic laboratories with leading laboratories providing assistance.

The high level policy and veterinary officials met in Kathmandu, Nepal on 24 and 25 March 2008. The meeting discussed the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza situation in Bangladesh, India and Myanmar and the preparedness plans of Bhutan and Nepal.

The meeting appreciated the commitment and efforts made by India and Myanmar in controlling the disease.

However, the ever-increasing number of outbreaks in Bangladesh despite the control efforts already put in place, raised regional concern particularly about the risk of HPAI introductions due to informal or illegal cross-border movements of poultry and poultry products.

FAO urged the government of Bangladesh to increase its efforts to control the disease situation. The agency said it is ready to increase its support to Bangladesh through assistance and technical advice, implementation of prevention and control programmes and mobilization of the international community.

The subregional meeting was organized by FAO in collaboration with the World Organisation for Animal Health

(OIE), hosted by the government of Nepal and sponsored by USAID and the Asian Development Bank.