Photo Credit – FAO
# 6003
Yesterday Pakistan’s Daily Times carried a report highly critical of the government’s lack of measures to combat the bird flu virus written by Asad Farooq called:
Bird flu threat looms large over Pakistan
KARACHI: Inappropriate policies, lapses in the 18th Amendment and prolonged delay in departmental procedures have pushed the country towards the deadliest viral disease of ‘bird flu’ at a time when the country is already facing severe problems due to dengue virus.
A large number of birds migrate from Europe to the South Asian countries, including Pakistan during the winter season, which according to the experts, are the core source of viral diseases, particularly the bird flu. So far tens of thousands of migratory birds along with the significant alarms of bird flu have arrived in the country.
This story goes on to criticize the recent dismantling of Pakistan’s National Programme for the Control and Prevention of Avian & Pandemic Influenza, which critics worry leaves Pakistan susceptible to a return of the H5N1 virus.
Today, the Business Recorder has a stern rebuttal to these claims, where health officials reportedly reject the concerns printed in the Daily Times.
No threats of bird flu in Pakistan
Monday, 12 December 2011 18:10
ISLAMABAD: Health experts on Monday rejected the news item which mentioned that threat of bird flu looms large over Pakistan and said it is all misinformation.
Experts also brushed aside the concept that migratory birds were carrier of any viral disease, and mentioned that these birds are not source or carrier of bird flu.
These denials are similar to those we’ve seen in the past, including back in 2007 when a cluster of human cases (see EID Journal: Unraveling Pakistan’s H5N1 Outbreak) made headlines.
Again, in 2008 we saw some remarkable statements regarding the H5N1 virus come out of Pakistan (see Bird Flu, Propaganda, and Conspiracy Theories and PPA Slams Bird Flu `Propaganda'), the gist being that fears over bird flu were `overblown’ and that it was all a conspiracy mounted against Pakistan’s poultry industry.
Today’s assertions that wild birds `are not carriers of any viral disease’ and are not the `source or carrier of bird flu’ certainly fly against the available evidence.
The FAO, in their warning on the new 2.3.2.1 clade of the H5N1 virus issued last August (see FAO Warns On Bird Flu) states:
Virus spread in both poultry and wild birds
At the same time, 2008 marked the beginning of renewed geographic expansion of the H5N1 virus both in poultry and wild birds.
The advance appears to be associated with migratory bird movements, according to FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth. He said migrations help the virus travel over long distances, so that H5N1 has in the past 24 months shown up in poultry or wild birds in countries that had been virus-free for several years.
"Wild birds may introduce the virus, but peoples' actions in poultry production and marketing spread it," Lubroth noted.
And of course we’ve seen numerous occasions where migratory birds have tested positive for a variety of avian flu strains, including H5N1.
Last March, in Study: The Role Of Migratory Birds In Spreading Bird Flu, we saw a plausible mechanism for the H5N1 virus to be spread from domesticated poultry to wild birds during the winter, and from there relayed primarily by asymptomatic birds along the migratory pathways.
And for more evidence linking migratory birds, and the spread of avian influenza, you may wish to revisit.
Korea: Migratory Birds Behind Spread Of H5N1
EID Journal: H5N1 Branching Out
While there are still unanswered questions regarding how much of contribution migratory birds make towards the global spread of avian flu, the evidence is overwhelming that they play at least some role.
All of which makes today’s renewed protestations that `bird flu poses no threat to Pakistan’, and that it is all an attempt to `shamble the business of poultry’ ring just a bit hollow.
