Brussels, 23/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - A meeting of European Chief Veterinary Officers (CVOs) and Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) in Brussels on Thursday called for better coordination between animal and public health authorities in addressing the threat of avian flu and the spread of the Asian H5N1 virus to Europe to avoid a human pandemic.
'The CVOs and CMOs acknowledge that further efforts should be carried out at national level to improve cooperation between public and animal health surveillance systems, including both virologists and epidemiologists,' explains the press release issued after Thursday's meeting. 'The current threat posed by the highly pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza virus in Asia and more in general the risk that the whole world might face an influenza pandemic should induce the Member States to intensify the work to update and adapt their Avian Influenza contingency plans and Pandemic preparedness plans.' The H5N1 virus was first identified in 1997 and mainly affects poultry in South-East Asia. It has recently been detected in Russia and Kazakhstan. WHO experts are unable to predict when it might mutate to become transmissible by humans, but consider that mutate it will.
Nearly 10,000 heads of poultry have been culled in recent days at a farm in Northern Ireland to test the pandemic preparedness measures for avian flu. Romania announced on Friday that it is launching an international call for tender to buy one million doses of normal flu vaccine to help combat a pandemic should it occur. (See EUROPE 9031 on discussions at Council level.)