Africa plans to tackle bird flu

2005-10-31 13:44

Kigali - Agriculture officials from 53 African countries have begun discussions on Monday on ways of dealing with avian flu as migratory birds that are believed to have brought the deadly strain of the disease to Europe are headed to Africa.

The conference - which would later bring together agriculture ministers from at least 22 countries - was originally meant to focus on fighting trans-border animal diseases, but organisers had now shifted attention to the looming bird flu crisis.

The outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain begun in 2003 in Asia, where it had devastated flocks and infected humans, killing 62 people.

Experts worry that bird flu outbreaks in Africa, with its strained infrastructure, were likely to be poorly reported and poorly managed.

Global human flu epidemic

Health officials wanted to keep a close eye on H5N1, fearing it could mutate into a virus that could be passed easily to and between humans and trigger a deadly global human flu epidemic.

Rosebud Kurwijila, African Union commissioner for rural economy and agriculture, said the meeting of agriculture officials in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, "is timely considering the outbreak of avian influenza ... with great potentials of causing high mortality among poultry - which is one of the biggest sources of income in rural areas - as well as death to human beings".

Kurwijila said: "This is a big challenge of our day, but I do believe that with political will by member states coupled with resource mobilisation and support from our development partners, we will succeed."

Countries in Eastern, Western, Central and Southern Africa had banned imports of live and wild birds as well as bird products in an effort to control the possible spread of the infection.

Last week, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said the risk of bird flu spreading to the Middle East and Africa had markedly increased, and that it was worried East Africa in particular might be poorly prepared.

- AP