Containing the bird flu virus to the greatest extent possible and reducing the risk of infection in poultry and farmed free-range ducks will help to prevent a global human influenza pandemic, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has announced.
Until 1997, avian influenza had never been known to directly infect humans, but in that year an outbreak of avian influenza type H5N1 infected 18 people in Hong Kong, six of whom died. The virus did not spread easily between humans and did not result in a pandemic. Likewise, the outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in humans in late 2003 and early 2004 did not result in a pandemic in part because it also did not spread easily from person to person.
“It is in the interest of both developed and developing countries to invest in the control and containment of avian influenza. Our objective is to protect human health -- locally and internationally -- and to promote food security -- and our strategy is to control the disease at source”, said Samuel Jutzi, Director of FAO’s Animal Production and Health Division.
“This means addressing the transmission of the virus where the disease occurs, in poultry, specifically free-range chickens and wetland dwelling ducks, and thus curbing the virus in the region before it spreads to other parts of the world”, Mr. Jutzi told the Regional Meeting on Avian Influenza in Ho Chi Minh City (23-25 February).
“The disease could, in the worst case, lead to a new global human influenza pandemic”, Mr. Jutzi said. “There is an increasing risk of avian influenza spread that no poultry keeping country can afford to ignore.”
Bird flu will probably persist for many years in some of the countries that recently had disease outbreaks, Mr. Jutzi said. Wild birds, particularly ducks, are considered as natural hosts of the bird flu virus and it will, therefore, be very difficult to completely eliminate the disease.
“However, current evidence suggests that trade in live poultry, mixing of avian species on farms and at live bird markets, and poor biosecurity in poultry production contribute much more to disease spread than wild bird movements”, Mr. Jutzi said.
“FAO advises against the destruction of wild birds and their habitats as such practice is unlikely to contribute significantly to disease control and is inappropriate from a wildlife conservation viewpoint”, he added.
Strict biosecurity measures need to be applied throughout the poultry production chain, from farms and small producers to distribution channels, markets and retailers. Public awareness of disease risks must be raised and some traditional practices such as drinking raw blood of ducks need to be changed to prevent further cases of human infection.