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H5N1 Control: Compensation or Vaccination? Cambodia's Crucial Choice
By: Sonny Inbaraj Krishnan
March 9, 2025, 10:00 AM
(Audio)
The fast-mutating H5N1 bird flu virus is spreading across species, including humans, raising fears of a new pandemic. Experts warn that without widespread poultry vaccination, the risk of human infections and another global health crisis remains high. In response, a new international One Health strategy promotes poultry vaccination, but trade concerns are making countries like Cambodia hesitant.
...
One of the main reasons countries, particularly in the Greater Mekong Subregion, are hesitant to vaccinate poultry against H5N1 is the potential impact on poultry exports. Nations that rely heavily on poultry trade fear that vaccination could lead to restrictions from importing countries. Some major poultry buyers, including the European Union and the United States, have historically banned imports from countries that use avian influenza vaccines due to concerns that vaccinated birds could carry the virus asymptomatically, making detection more difficult.
Cambodia has reported multiple human cases of H5N1, including two deaths in 2025, yet remains hesitant to adopt poultry vaccination due to economic concerns. Thailand has expressed similar reservations.
In late 2023, as Cambodia experienced a sharp rise in human H5N1 cases, local scientists identified a novel reassortant virus. This strain combined genes from the older 2.3.2.1c clade, previously circulating in Southeast Asia, with internal genes from the newer 2.3.4.4b clade, which has spread globally, infecting various animal species—even reaching Antarctica.
Lessons, however, can be learned from neighboring Vietnam. Vietnam has implemented poultry vaccination against H5N1 avian influenza since 2005. The country was one of the first in the world to introduce a large-scale poultry vaccination program after experiencing severe H5N1 outbreaks in the early 2000s. The vaccination efforts helped significantly reduce outbreaks in poultry and human cases in the following years.
...
However, Cambodia faces a significant challenge in its control efforts. The logistics of vaccinating millions of birds, especially in backyard farms and live bird markets, pose a significant hurdle. Ensuring proper cold storage, distribution, and administration of vaccines in rural areas is resource intensive.
Unlike some other countries that provide financial support to affected farmers to encourage early reporting and compliance with control measures, Cambodia does not have a well-established or widely implemented compensation policy for poultry farmers whose flocks are culled due to H5N1 avian influenza, with its compensation system being either limited or nonexistent.
The absence of financial reimbursement for culled poultry creates a significant obstacle to effective H5N1 control. Without such support, farmers are discouraged from reporting cases, leading to underreporting, continued virus circulation, and significant challenges in containment. Experts agree that implementing a compensation policy would significantly improve disease surveillance and foster cooperation with control measures.
...
Full article:
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See also:
WOAH - New Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (21 February 2025)
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/national-international-government-ngo-preparation-response/oie/1008438-woah-new-global-strategy-for-the-prevention-and-control-of-high-pathogenicity-avian-influenza-21-february-2025
By: Sonny Inbaraj Krishnan
March 9, 2025, 10:00 AM
(Audio)
The fast-mutating H5N1 bird flu virus is spreading across species, including humans, raising fears of a new pandemic. Experts warn that without widespread poultry vaccination, the risk of human infections and another global health crisis remains high. In response, a new international One Health strategy promotes poultry vaccination, but trade concerns are making countries like Cambodia hesitant.
...
One of the main reasons countries, particularly in the Greater Mekong Subregion, are hesitant to vaccinate poultry against H5N1 is the potential impact on poultry exports. Nations that rely heavily on poultry trade fear that vaccination could lead to restrictions from importing countries. Some major poultry buyers, including the European Union and the United States, have historically banned imports from countries that use avian influenza vaccines due to concerns that vaccinated birds could carry the virus asymptomatically, making detection more difficult.
Cambodia has reported multiple human cases of H5N1, including two deaths in 2025, yet remains hesitant to adopt poultry vaccination due to economic concerns. Thailand has expressed similar reservations.
In late 2023, as Cambodia experienced a sharp rise in human H5N1 cases, local scientists identified a novel reassortant virus. This strain combined genes from the older 2.3.2.1c clade, previously circulating in Southeast Asia, with internal genes from the newer 2.3.4.4b clade, which has spread globally, infecting various animal species—even reaching Antarctica.
Lessons, however, can be learned from neighboring Vietnam. Vietnam has implemented poultry vaccination against H5N1 avian influenza since 2005. The country was one of the first in the world to introduce a large-scale poultry vaccination program after experiencing severe H5N1 outbreaks in the early 2000s. The vaccination efforts helped significantly reduce outbreaks in poultry and human cases in the following years.
...
However, Cambodia faces a significant challenge in its control efforts. The logistics of vaccinating millions of birds, especially in backyard farms and live bird markets, pose a significant hurdle. Ensuring proper cold storage, distribution, and administration of vaccines in rural areas is resource intensive.
Unlike some other countries that provide financial support to affected farmers to encourage early reporting and compliance with control measures, Cambodia does not have a well-established or widely implemented compensation policy for poultry farmers whose flocks are culled due to H5N1 avian influenza, with its compensation system being either limited or nonexistent.
The absence of financial reimbursement for culled poultry creates a significant obstacle to effective H5N1 control. Without such support, farmers are discouraged from reporting cases, leading to underreporting, continued virus circulation, and significant challenges in containment. Experts agree that implementing a compensation policy would significantly improve disease surveillance and foster cooperation with control measures.
...
Full article:
-----------------------
See also:
WOAH - New Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (21 February 2025)
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/national-international-government-ngo-preparation-response/oie/1008438-woah-new-global-strategy-for-the-prevention-and-control-of-high-pathogenicity-avian-influenza-21-february-2025