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Mexico Free From High-Risk Avian Flu Virus Says Academic

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 18:01 CDT

Text of report by Lourdes Edith Rudino: "Mexico free from high- risk avian flu", published by Mexican newspaper El Financiero website on 19 October

Mexico does not have the high-risk strain of avian influenza that has caused the death of over 60 persons and more than 100 million birds in Asia - and has already been detected in some European countries such as Greece and Romania, as well as Turkey - and chances that the flu could arrive here are very, very remote. The disease in question is the type-A influenza virus (H5N1), also known as the "H5N1 virus," which attacks mainly birds.

The disease is causing worldwide concern because the first case of direct infection with the H5N1 virus transmitted from chickens to humans was detected in Hong Kong in 1997. The virus has since been detected in humans in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, with deadly effects and coinciding with widespread outbreaks of sick chickens.

According to Nestor Ledesma, an academic at the Avian Department of the UNAM [National Autonomous University of Mexico], Mexico has only the low-risk influenza or avian flu, strain H5N2, which only attacks birds and not human beings. Ledesma added: "We have a successful campaign in place, as good as that in any First World country, with vaccination procedures that control the disease, which is becoming less and less frequent."

Furthermore, he added, it is very unlikely that migratory birds would bring the H5N1 disease here. "To begin with, a sick bird can't even fly." Therefore, the issue should not be viewed with alarm, Ledesma said.

The Agriculture Secretariat yesterday confirmed that Mexico's borders are closed to all types of chicken imports from countries with outbreaks of the high-risk avian flu strain.

Mexico has 3,860 commercial poultry farms that are subject to very strict animal health controls, the Agriculture Secretariat stated.

Fears over the H5N1 virus have spread quickly all over the world, including among the foremost health institutions, but some concerns are unfounded.

A few days ago Lee Jong-Wook, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the avian flu is "certain" to turn into a human pandemic and that it is "only a matter of time before the H5N1 virus mutates into a strain that can spread among humans."

The WHO is afraid that the disease will mutate in such a way that it will cause more widespread infection among humans.

It should be noted that the H5N1 virus is transmitted among birds through saliva, nasal secretions, and faeces. Infections in humans - in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia - were due to direct coexistence with birds or contact with surfaces where the animals deposit their faeces and poor sanitation conditions.

In any event, there is unjustified alarm, according to experts cited by Avinet, a website for Spain's poultry industry. No influenza strain or subtype, including the H5N1, is transmitted by eating cooked poultry meat, although people have stopped eating it in some countries.

"Chicken consumption in Italy has dropped between 30 per cent and 40 per cent since this terrifying media onslaught began. Consumption has fallen by up to 15 per cent in Hungary after outbreaks (of H5N1) were detected in birds in Romania and Turkey," Avinet reports.

Source: BBC Monitoring Americas

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