Avian Influenza Still Expanding In Africa

While avian
influenza has been successfully checked in Western Europe and much of
Southeast Asia apart from Indonesia, it is still expanding in Africa and
will remain a threat for years to come, FAO Deputy Director-General David
Harcharik told a high- level meeting of the United Nations Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC) in Geneva today.


"In the majority of cases, wherever HPAI [highly pathogenic avian
influenza] has made its appearance we, the global community and the
countries concerned have been able to stop it in its tracks," Mr. Harcharik
said, speaking at an ECOSOC special event meeting on bird flu.


But "HPAI poses a continuing threat and we must brace ourselves to go
on fighting it, quite likely for years," he warned. HPAI, he said, was
still a source of concern in Indonesia and continued to spread in Africa,
where it risked becoming endemic in several countries.


Mr. Harcharik cited difficulties in enforcing appropriate control
measures such as culling, farmer compensation and checks on animal
movements in African countries. Another complication was illegal trade in
poultry.


"Until such trade is effectively checked by stronger official
veterinary authorities, and until better surveillance, alert-response,
diagnostics and reporting is achieved, the risk will remain with us," Mr.
Harcharik said.


Continuing threat


Mr. Harcharik stressed it was imperative to act quickly and decisively
to stop HPAI wherever it appeared because so long as the H5N1 virus causing
HPAI stayed in circulation it would remain a threat to the international
community.


H5N1 had not so far mutated into a form transmittable from one human
being to another. But should it do so, the result could be a pandemic of
vast proportions, he said.


In the two and half years of the present avian influenza emergency,
some 200 million poultry have been culled, causing losses of 10 billion
dollars in Southeast Asia alone. At last count in early July there had been
229 human cases of H5N1 infection resulting in the deaths of 131 persons.


Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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