Experts: Bird flu may worsen global food crisis*

By Julia Zappei,
Associated Press

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The worst of the bird flu threat is over but
the fight to eliminate the disease from poultry is weak — a situation
that could worsen the global food crisis, health experts warned on Friday.

"The peak is over, but we still are dealing with many outbreaks, small
outbreaks," Juan Lubroth, a senior official with the United Nations'
Food and Agricultural Organization, said at an international medical
conference.

"It's like a boiling pot, and we need to keep the lid on that before it
gets worse," Lubroth said at the 13th International Congress on
Infectious Diseases, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Bird flu is still active in 10 countries, down from 60 that have been
affected since 2003. Hot spots include China, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria,
Pakistan and Vietnam.

Lubroth, the head of the FAO's Emergency Prevention System, said that
"drawbacks and weaknesses" remain in the fight to eliminate the deadly
H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus from the poultry sector.

He said death of poultry especially affects the poor, 80% of whom own
livestock for their livelihood worldwide.

Lubroth said poultry is an important, inexpensive protein source for
people who wonder every day, "What are we going to have for dinner
tonight, or what will be available for tomorrow?"

He warned that failure to protect their food sources could worsen the
global food crisis, caused by rising prices of rice, corn and other staples.

Lubroth said 240 million birds have died or been slaughtered, and
millions of people's livelihoods shattered, because of bird flu.

Veterinary services around the world need to be strengthened and more
experts trained, while reporting must be more transparent, he said,
adding that countries have to use more surveillance and implement
policies to deal with the disease. "We fail to see that political
commitment," he said.

Besides the threat to the food situation, bird flu could also endanger
human lives more directly.

Sporadic suspected human-to-human transmission of H5N1 has been reported
in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia, but none of the cases has been
proven. Experts believe the virus remains difficult for humans to catch.

They fear, however, that it could mutate into a form that spreads easily
among humans and trigger a pandemic that some say could quickly kill
millions of people who would have no immunity to a new flu virus.

"If we want to avert a human pandemic, we must tackle the disease at the
source — the source being poultry, the source being poor hygiene, the
source being lack of regulatory infrastructures to improve the poultry
production sector," Lubroth said.

Still, there was no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of
H5N1, Nikki Shindo, an infection control specialist at the World Health
Organization, told the conference. Bird flu is "not posing a great
public health risk" to humans clinically, he said.

Shindo said that 385 people have reportedly contracted the disease since
2003, and that 241 of them have died, about half of them in Indonesia.

Sardikin Giriputro, who has been at he forefront of Indonesia's campaign
against bird flu, said that despite all preparations, "no country is
prepared enough for the pandemic."