Asia's First Anti-bird Flu Facility Opens In Bangkok

[Thaising]

Asia's first anti-bird flu facility has opened in Bangkok to help fight any new avian influenza outbreaks in the region.

In Bangkok, the first of three worldwide anti-bird flu stockpiles is fully operational. It is ready to counter new occurrences of the disease with rapid response emergency kits.

A total of 45,000 pieces of personal protective equipment, 440 decontamination kits, ten laboratory specimen kits and four training packs worth over half a million US dollars will be stored in a warehouse near Suvarnabhumi Airport.

He Change Chui, Assistant Director General, Food and Agricultural Organisation, said: "The very purpose of this centre is to deliver equipment, commodities in the shortest time possible. In a few hours, Bangkok can reach anywhere."

US Ambassador to Thailand, Mr Eric John, inaugurated the Regional Distribution Centre, which is partly sponsored by United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Oliver Carduner, Director of USAID RDMA, said: "We're able to mobilise these life-saving commodities within 24 hours of the order. Previously when they were based in the United States, depending on the method of shipment, it could take as long as two to three weeks to transport them."

The deadly H5N1 virus remains a grave threat around the region because of the large chicken and duck populations, with new outbreaks reported from the Laos border earlier this year.

Seventeen Thais have died from the disease since 2003 and Vietnam has reported five deaths so far this year.

Though the number of human deaths has declined since last year, scientists fear the virus could mutate and jump from human to human, sparking a global pandemic.

[Thaising]

UN links ducks, people, rice paddies for bird flu

ROME : Concentrations of ducks, rice paddies and people are primarily responsible for outbreaks of potentially deadly bird flu across Asia, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Wednesday.

"Rather than chickens, (these) are the major factors behind outbreaks of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza in Thailand and Vietnam, and are probably behind outbreak persistence in other countries of the region such as Cambodia and Laos," said a report by the Rome-based agency.

It said a group of experts had studied a series of outbreaks between early 2004 and late 2005 under senior FAO veterinary officer Jan Slingenbergh, publishing its findings in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.

"We now know much better where and when to expect H5N1 flare-ups," Slingenbergh said.

"With virus persistence becoming increasingly confined to areas with intensive rice-duck agriculture in eastern and southeastern Asia, evolution of the H5N1 virus may become easier to predict."

By comparing satellite mapping of rice paddies, to show the concentration of ducks feeding on leftover grains in harvested fields, to outbreak timelines, the researchers were able to draw a link and pinpoint periods when the risk of the virus spreading is at its greatest.

The role played by people comes in terms of population density, with people numbers influencing duck movement.

"In Thailand, for example, the proportion of young ducks in flocks was found to peak in September-October," the report said.

"These rapidly growing young ducks can therefore benefit from the peak of the rice harvest in November-December."

It added: "Meat ducks are slaughtered around the Chinese New Year (in January or February, depending on the year), a time when the volume of sales-related duck movement rises considerably."

Ninety percent of the world's 1.044 billion domestic ducks are in Asia, with 775 million of them, or about 75 percent, in China and Vietnam.

In 2005, Thailand introduced the need for animal health certificates for duck farmers, along with subsidies for indoor keeping of the birds, feeds and enclosure building.

"Together, these measures stopped the H5N1 transmission cycle and since late 2005, Thailand has suffered only sporadic outbreaks," the report noted.

Slingenbergh added that indiscriminate mass vaccination - which the authors found had little long-term effect in Vietnam, for example - should be replaced by such targeted disease control measures working off local rice-duck calendars and known hotspots. - AFP

[Ricardo]

Hub of Asian Bird-Flu ?