Avian Bird Flu Updates

European nations scared about Avian Bird Flu – Rush to strengthen defences

Europe is racing to bolster its defences against bird flu, fearing it could be winging its way to the continent with migrating wildfowl via countries too poor to check its spread. While governments of most nations believe the risk is quite low, Netherlands has taken extreme steps by ordering its farmers to keep poultry out of the open. Britain too is taking precautionary measures by briefing its doctors on how to handle a possible pandemic while France has started stock piling Avian bird flu medication for its population.

The present version of the Avian bird flu is a result of the H5N1 strain which surfaced in Hong Kong around eight years ago and has so far killed millions of birds and more than 60 people in Asia. It is now believed to be spreading to the West. What has experts running scared is the possibility of a mutation which could make the virus pass easily between humans and thereby become even more deadly – perhaps even more than the one which broke out in 1918 and killed 40 million people across the world. The last flu pandemic the world saw was in the 60’s which caused around 4 million fatalities.


Feared Gateways
Nations in Europe are running scared on account of the disease having surfaced among birds in Russia & Kazakhstan, despite the fact that no human cases have been reported there. There are fears the virus could now be carried to Europe by migratory wildfowl. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also expressed concerns that wild water-birds could be expected to carry the virus over long distances to the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. It said birds flying from Siberia could carry the disease to the Caspian and Black Sea regions, which along with the Balkans, would form the "gateway to central Europe for the virus".

FAO felt that bird migration routes could also run across Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine and some Mediterranean countries, where outbreaks were possible. It also informed the countries located along possible migration routes to step up surveillance of domestic poultry and wild birds, and to prepare national emergency plans. Joseph Domenech, FAO’s Chief Veterinary officer was quoted as saying, “FAO is concerned that poor countries in southeast Europe, where wild birds mingle with others from northern Europe, may lack the capacity to detect and deal with outbreaks of bird flu.


Britain & France stocking up
At the same time, Britain and France have started taking precautionary measures of their own. Britain has plans of supplying its doctors with information packs this month itself which will include a 50 page technical guide to help identify bird flu cases in humans and guidelines on containing the outbreaks, if any occurred. At the same time, France has started building up its reserves of avian bird flu vaccines and drugs. As per French media reports, the government has already acquired 5 million doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu and was planning to raise the level to 14 million by the end of the year. Plans of boosting the stocks of protective face masks from 50 million to 200 million were also in the pipeline.


Poultry imports banned
Imports of poultry meat and birds from Asia & Russia by member nations was banned by The European Commission, after a meeting of veterinary officials in August called for increased monitoring. While the Commission felt that the risk of migratory birds spreading the virus to Europe was low, countries bordering the Black Sea as well as Romania & Bulgaria were more at risk.

At the same time, Netherlands, one of the world’s biggest exporters of poultry meat has completely banned poultry from being let outdoor with a view to minimize any possible contact with wild birds. The country suffered an outbreak of the milder H5N7 strain of bird flu in 2003, but the episode still left 30 million birds dead at a direct cost of more than 150 million euros ($188 million).

VACCINE AWAITED
While nations across Europe are building protection against the flu, the world's top vaccine firms are making progress in the hunt for a shot that could fight any future spread of a lethal form of bird flu. But the projects are still under research and will surely take some time.

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