Battle Against Bird Flu Focuses on Asia Farms New UN Plan Pins Hopes on Education
Experts disclosed a new plan to prevent the spread of avian influenza from poultry to humans at a UN conference here Wednesday. They also urged the international community to provide financial and technical support for what they said was a crucial fight against the disease. The new strategy focuses on Asia’s small-scale farms, which have spawned 80 percent of all human bird flu cases, Dr. Joseph Domenech, the chief of the Animal Health Service for the Food and Agriculture Organization, said in an interview. Because many small- scale farmers are not aware of the disease or of basic preventive measures, the United Nations hopes to begin large-scale education campaigns in affected areas with the help of governments and local groups. Farmers will learn about high-risk farm practices, simple sanitation measures and the importance of separating livestock by different species.
The new strategy also targets Asia’s wet markets. These large open markets, where consumers can purchase live poultry or fresh meat, are often considered bastions for infectious diseases because of unsanitary conditions and lack of governmental regulation, a senior officer of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Anni McLeod, said in an interview. “We agreed that it is vital to urgently change or even end a number of farming practices that are dangerous to humans,” Domenech said in a press release. “These include the way chickens, ducks and pigs are raised in close proximity to each other, often with no barriers between them and humans.”
Health experts called on affected countries to increase poultry vaccinations and to encourage farmers to report bird flu outbreaks through incentive-based systems, including financial packages, which will help offset related costs, such as culling. Small-scale farmers, a majority of which are poor in Asia, are usually afraid to report suspected outbreaks because they are worried about losing their poultry and their livelihood, Dr. Shigeru Omi, the regional director for the World Health Organization, said in an interview Tuesday.
It is difficult to calculate the economic costs of a massive prevention campaign in Asia’s poultry industry, but aggressive programs, which may be needed in the most affected areas, could disrupt economies, Domenech said.
In areas where the outbreak has been particularly fierce, entire farms or wet markets may need to be relocated, which would uproot families and potentially damage local markets. At the same time, a full-blown bird flu crisis could substantially impede growth, cost economies billions and shake up the world market. A greater crisis is still a big “what if” as of now, but the threat remains and continues to captivate investors’ attention. Over the last two years, the bird flu virus has killed over 140 million birds and cost Asia about $10 billion, according to UN officials.
Certain short-term economic sacrifices will be necessary to effectively combat the virus, health officials said.
“We are at war,” Omi said. “It’s not an easy enemy, but if we don’t prevent outbreaks now, there will be much more human and economic loss.”
The United Nations estimates that it will need $100 million for animal care programs, but this figure does not include the cost of restructuring the poultry industry, which officials fear could be much higher. The UN will also need technical and human resource assistance from donor countries and about $150 million for human health care over the next two years, Omi said. The conference was convened in response to the global threat of the Asian bird flu crisis and to address the root of the problem: human interaction with animals in the production, distribution, processing and marketing of animals for food, health experts said.
While the virus has been studied extensively for two years, its versatile nature continues to confound the scientific community. Experts are still not sure why the strain seems so lethal to humans in certain countries like Vietnam, where 38 people have died of the virus, but exclusively lethal to birds in other countries, like China or Indonesia. In two years, 108 people have been infected with the highly lethal bird flu virus, a deadly A(H5N1) strain, and 54 people have died. The human death toll is still far from the pandemic level, which is two million to seven million, according to the World Health Organization. There is no evidence that the disease can be easily transmitted between humans, and no one is certain how the virus will develop. As the UN session convened this week to hash out a global strategy, other countries stepped up their efforts. In Indonesia, where officials announced the first human bird flu case last month, the government said it would slaughter more poultry in outbreak areas.