Search This Blog

Friday, April 22, 2011

Sustained Efforts Needed To Eliminate Bird Flu

Article from Scoop :

" New York, Apr 21 2011 : While most countries have managed to stamp out bird flu, eliminating the virus from poultry in the six countries where it remains endemic will take at least 10 years, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says in a new report.

The H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1 HPAI), which was reported in 60 countries at its peak in 2006, remains “firmly entrenched” in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Viet Nam, according to the Rome-based agency.

FAO’s report attributes this to three factors: the structure of their national poultry sectors; the quality of public and private veterinary and animal production services, which are not always able to detect and respond to infections; and the level of commitment to dealing vigorously with the H5N1 virus.

“The fear of H5N1 does not necessarily translate into concrete plans for virus control and elimination,” states the report, entitled “Approaches to Controlling, Preventing and Eliminating H5N1 HPAI in Endemic Countries.”

The report outlines measures that each of the six endemic countries should take over the next five years to move them towards virus elimination, including in the areas of outbreak control and response, gathering and analysing information, and disease prevention and risk reduction."

No comments:

Post a Comment