The logical way to protect ourselves from bird flu

While health authorities in Europe stockpile antiviral drugs and protective masks against the possible arrival of a deadly human-variant of the bird flu virus, a logical way to protect humans is being underrated: contain the infection at source. Certainly the precautionary principle must be applied, but it would be wise to reduce the risk to people by eliminating the virus where it originates: in animals. Sixty people have already died and 140 million birds have been destroyed by the disease.

Affected countries in Southeast Asia are proving that such a strategy can work. Thailand has obtained an impressive reduction of outbreaks and the cessation of human cases through massive investment in controlling the disease in poultry, using stamping out and biosecurity measures including improved surveillance and active disease search.

In Viet Nam, improved on-farm hygiene, farming practices and poultry movement controls have reduced the frequency of bird flu outbreaks and they are now embarking on a national vaccination programme. Indonesia is also having some success with a massive poultry vaccination programme. Several countries such as Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and Japan have eliminated the disease rapidly after the occurrence of new outbreaks.

To win the battle against bird flu, close contacts between humans, domestic poultry and wildlife have to be limited; chickens, ducks and other domestic species need to be kept apart; poultry production must be separated from wild birds to the greatest extent possible; and wildlife markets, especially wet markets in Southeast Asia where wild and domestic animals are kept in cages next to each other, need to be strictly monitored.

There are precedents

Other animal diseases are being beaten - for example rinderpest, an ancient and highly contagious viral disease of cattle. The Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme launched by FAO and its partners is reaching its goal after 10 years. Asia has been free from the disease since 2000. Most of Africa is also now free from the disease and there is every reason to believe that the whole world will be free of rinderpest by 2010.

Bird flu will be difficult and, in some cases, impossible to eradicate completely because the virus has become established in certain environments and host species, including wild birds that recently have carried the virus from the Far East as far as Russia and Kazakhstan. The objective, in the short to medium term, is to push infection back into these known reservoirs and minimise the risk of infection spilling over into farmed poultry and humans at the village and commercial farm level. In the long term, the aim is to eliminate infection from as many production systems as possible.

FAO and the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) have developed a detailed strategy for the control of avian influenza in Asia and have calculated the cost of implementation at about US$100 million, to support surveillance, diagnosis and other control measures, including vaccination. However, so far donors have pledged only around US$25 million in support of the strategy, at a time when they are spending enormous sums on the second line of defence in this global battle.

Considering the migration routes of wild birds, the next hot-spots could be the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa. National authorities should invest in prevention and be aware of the need to act rapidly to control the disease at source. In the long run, it will be cheaper than the cure.

September 2005

Published in Dallas News (USA), Le Figaro (France), Il Sole 24-Ore (Italy), El País (Spain) among other newspapers