Bird flu spreads fast in Africa

PARIS – International experts resumed talks yesterday on tackling the deadly bird flu epidemic, as France conducts a mass vaccination of ducks and geese and the lethal H5N1 strain makes further inroads in Africa.

Health officials in the southwest French department of the Landes on Monday started vaccinating some 700 000 birds, in an operation that is expected to take several weeks. Geese on a farm at the village of Classun were the first to receive an injection to the neck containing a vaccine based on the related H5N2 virus.Booster shots are required after four weeks.Experts see vaccination as a last resort in countries with an advanced level of veterinary organisation.Confinement of domestic fowl, isolation of suspect cases, surveillance and selected slaughter is still the preferred option.Experts fear that H5N1, which has killed more than 90 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, may mutate into a form that can pass between humans, rather than just from bird to human, launching a pandemic that could kill millions.Human deaths have already been recorded in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.Some 40 countries have now been hit by the H5N1 strain, which began in east Asia and spread west to Europe and Africa.The virus is continuing its advance into Africa, with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reporting the first cases in Niger.Nigeria, which was previously the only west African country with the disease, reported that two more states in the north – Yobe and Nassarawa – had been hit.A total of 300 000 birds have died or been slaughtered since the virus was detected two weeks ago, officials said.In Nairobi, Kenyan authorities said 400 dead chickens were being tested for H5N1.Chief veterinary officers from more than 50 countries in Europe as well as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Syria began a two-day meeting at the OIE’s headquarters in Paris on Monday aimed at coordinating their response to the worsening epidemic.OIE director-general Bernard Vallat warned that bird flu was transforming from “epidemic to pandemic”.Nampa-AFPGeese on a farm at the village of Classun were the first to receive an injection to the neck containing a vaccine based on the related H5N2 virus.Booster shots are required after four weeks.Experts see vaccination as a last resort in countries with an advanced level of veterinary organisation.Confinement of domestic fowl, isolation of suspect cases, surveillance and selected slaughter is still the preferred option.Experts fear that H5N1, which has killed more than 90 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, may mutate into a form that can pass between humans, rather than just from bird to human, launching a pandemic that could kill millions.Human deaths have already been recorded in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.Some 40 countries have now been hit by the H5N1 strain, which began in east Asia and spread west to Europe and Africa.The virus is continuing its advance into Africa, with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reporting the first cases in Niger.Nigeria, which was previously the only west African country with the disease, reported that two more states in the north – Yobe and Nassarawa – had been hit.A total of 300 000 birds have died or been slaughtered since the virus was detected two weeks ago, officials said.In Nairobi, Kenyan authorities said 400 dead chickens were being tested for H5N1.Chief veterinary officers from more than 50 countries in Europe as well as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Syria began a two-day meeting at the OIE’s headquarters in Paris on Monday aimed at coordinating their response to the worsening epidemic.OIE director-general Bernard Vallat warned that bird flu was transforming from “epidemic to pandemic”.Nampa-AFP