FAO says Indonesia needs help fighting bird flu
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MILAN, March 18 (Reuters) - Major efforts have done little to control H5N1 avian influenza in Indonesia and the country needs more help in controlling the virus, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Tuesday.
Surveillance and response teams are working in 193 out of 448 districts in Indonesia, yet birds in 31 out of 33 provinces are affected, FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said in a statement.
By June 2008, more than 2,000 surveillance and response teams will be active in more than 300 districts in disease-endemic areas of the country, he said.
But that may not be enough.
"Indonesia is facing an uphill battle against a virus that is difficult to contain. Major human and financial resources, stronger political commitment and strengthened coordination between the central, provincial and district authorities are required to improve surveillance and control measures," Domenech said.
"We have also observed that new H5N1 avian influenza virus strains have recently emerged creating the possibility that vaccines currently in use may not be fully protecting poultry against the disease," Domenech added.
"The major challenge is to immediately apply the main components of a successful national avian influenza control strategy, based on effective surveillance, emergency culling and compensation, vaccination, improved biosecurity, effective laboratory and quarantine procedures, and movement controls of poultry and poultry products."
H5N1 avian influenza mostly attacks birds but killed 236 people out of 373 infected in 14 countries since 2003.
"The human mortality rate from bird flu in Indonesia is the highest in the world and there will be more human cases if we do not focus more on containing the disease at source in animals," Domenech said.
About 20 percent of 1.4 billion chickens in Indonesia are scattered in around 30 million back yards, Domenech said.
"I am deeply concerned that the high level of virus circulation in birds in the country could create conditions for the virus to mutate and to finally cause a human influenza pandemic," Domenech added. (Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova; editing by Maggie Fox)
