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The Vietnam News

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2nd regional meeting on bird flu to open in Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY - "Through the 2ndRegional Meeting on Avian Influenza Control in Animals in Asia, wehope to receive technical assistance and relevant helps from the international community," Bui Quang Anh, director of Vietnam's Department of Animal Health, told Xinhua here. Noting that his country has had close cooperation with Thailandon exchanging anti-bird flu experiences, he added Vietnam is willing to give a helping hand to Laos and Cambodia.

The bird flu virus strain H5N1 has remained a big health threatin several Asian countries, which urges nations as well as international organizations to forge closer cooperation to stamp it out. Their top veterinary officials, scientists and representatives are to touch upon issues regarding current bird flu situations in affected countries, achievements of control measures over the last12 months, latest scientific findings, new control measures and future research needs at the three-day meeting starting here Wednesday.

The regional meeting is to be held by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the Vietnamese government. Delegates to the meeting will hear a summary of bird flu situation in Asia by the FAO and the OIE, review recommendations of the first meeting held in Thailand in February 2004, make recommendations on future needs, discuss scientific advances on animal health and socio-economic analysis. It will also get to know views on prevention, control and elimination of highly pathogenic avian influenza of organizations and donor agencies such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the World Bank, and donor countries, includingAustralia, France and the United States.

Bird flu, which is feared to be present for a considerable longtime in the nations that faced outbreaks during 2004, is an ongoing disease that spreads across borders, and has serious implications for the public and animal health sector, the FAO and the OIE said in a recent joint statement. "The international community has to realize that some poor countries in Asia living with the bird flu virus must receive moresupport to intensify precautionary measures and to contain the risks associated with the disease," the two agencies stressed.

Affected countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia need the support of the international community to reinforce their veterinary infrastructure and carry out effective control strategies, based on better bio-security, modernized industry practices and, where appropriate, vaccination, they said. Vietnam, one of the most seriously affected countries in the region by the epidemic starting in December 2003, has so far experienced three outbreaks of bird flu, killing 32 local people.

More than 100 million fowls have been killed by the epidemic orslaughtered in the prevention of further spread of the virus sincethe outbreak of the epidemic, leading to a great loss to agriculture and trade in the sector in the region. Thanks to the great efforts made by the governments in the region as well as through timely cooperation in the world community, the deadly bird flu has been largely controlled in Asia.However, the recent outbreak of the epidemic in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia alarmed the world of the need for further actions to the elimination of the virus.

Therefore, scientific advances in animal health, prevention measures and policy supporting as well as international cooperation are the present need in the fight against the epidemic.The outcomes of the regional meeting on the bird flu are eagerly expected.

By Xiao Chenglin & Bui Minh Long - Xinhua - February 22, 2005


Talks in Vietnam address endemic bird flu

TAM VU - The challenges in eradicating a virus now entrenched in a region crowded with both people and poultry will be the focus of a regional bird flu conference that opens this Wednesday in Ho Chi Minh City. When scores of chickens began dying from bird flu on Bui Van Dung's Mekong Delta farm last year, he was forced to destroy his entire flock of 23,000 birds in a bid to keep the disease from spreading. He gambled on new hatchlings. But early this year bird flu re-emerged in yet another outbreak - a sign that the virus has become endemic in Vietnam's poultry stock.

"It may hit me again, but I have no other choice" but to raise chickens, he said, walking amid a row of chicken cages on his small farm. "What else can I do?" The meeting by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health will be looking at ways the international community can coordinate a long-term strategy to fight the disease, now that it is seen as more than a flash in the epidemiological pan.

That is significant because bird flu, if it mutates through steady contact with people to spread easily between humans, holds the potential to rival some of the fearsome flu pandemics of the last century, which killed tens of millions of people. So far, 45 people from Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia have died from the H5N1 strain of the virus, though all but one case is believed to have been transmitted through contact with sick birds.

"The difference is that last year we were looking at it as a situation of an outbreak. Now we know that avian influenza is a problem that's going to be here to stay," said Anton Rychener, head of the U.N. agency in Hanoi. "The longer we wait to address this problem jointly, the greater the danger becomes that the virus will mutate with the human influenza virus and we have a pandemic."

The H5N1 strain of the virus, first reported in Vietnam in late 2003, swept through 10 countries in Asia last year, devastating poultry farms and forcing the slaughter of about 100 million birds. Vietnam and Thailand have been hardest hit after two more outbreaks, despite declarations from governments that the disease had been eliminated. Vietnam has the region's highest number of deaths, with 32 in the past year. Thailand reported 12 fatalities, while Cambodia had one. Last month, the Hanoi government sent a letter to the United Nations asking for international assistance to stem the disease and help coordinate foreign assistance to Vietnam.

"Countries like Vietnam and Thailand are taking it very seriously. But I'm disappointed that the international community hasn't done more," said Hans Troedsson, head of the WHO in Vietnam. "If this happened in Europe or North America, it would have gotten a completely different response. Here it's seen as an 'Asian problem.'"

The UN agencies believe the international community should throw resources and funding at a disease that could potentially threaten the world. The major pandemics of the past century - the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic, the 1957 Asian flu and 1968 Hong Kong flu - killed more than 50 million people combined. U.N. officials said an outbreak of a potential mutant bird flu could claim between 2 million and 100 million lives.

The conference will be looking at a variety of issues, including mass vaccinations, flu research, farm hygiene, animal husbandry practices, and improving coordination between animal health and human health agencies. One of the biggest challenges will be revamping how most farms operate in Asia, where chickens are packed into farmyards with other livestock and hygiene is minimal.

"Practically the entire rural area (in Vietnam) is one big farm where humans, ducks, pigs, geese roam together," said Rychener. Most chickens in Vietnam are not raised in commercial farms but in back yards as a food supplement or extra source of income. In places like southern Long An province, the Mekong Delta's largest poultry producer, veterinary officials admit it would be difficult to enforce many precautions. "It's tradition here to raise five or 10 chickens in your home. That would be very hard to ban," said veterinary official Nguyen Thanh Tam.

But some government measures have begun to take root. Chicken farmer Dung, who lost nearly a decade's worth of savings last year, now disinfects cages daily and doesn't allow strangers to walk through the farm. His chickens are tested every other month for bird flu. So far, his 10,000 birds are healthy.

By Tini Tran - The Associated Press - February 21, 2005