Sally Furniss
Well-known member
Bird flu warning
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2007/07/12/5352_news.html
Michaela Farrington
12Jul07
AN international expert on animal disease last night warned Indonesia had become strongly infected by avian influenza, posing a risk to Australia.
The director general of the World Organisation for Animal Health, Dr Bernard Vallat, said Indonesia was struggling to control bird flu and had become a reservoir from which the disease could spread to neighbouring countries.
``It is dangerous for Australia,'' Dr Vallat said last night after delivering the 2007 Snowden lecture at the CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong.
``The situation in Indonesia is not good because there is no national chain of command,'' Dr Vallat said.
``Small regions are independent, they say what they want, which is not good for managing disasters.
``Disasters need strong political decisions to save the whole country, not only part of the country.''
But despite the warning, Dr Vallat's lecture contained some good news on the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
Dr Vallat said fewer people and fewer domestic poultry had been infected this year than in 2006.
And the death rate for infected wild birds had also dropped dramatically this year.
And despite the millions of contacts between people and infected birds since 2003, Dr Vallat said only small number of people had become infected, indicating the influenza was not easily transmitted between birds and people.
Strengthening veterinary services in developing countries and providing compensation to farmers who reported outbreaks in their poultry were among Dr Vallat's recommendations for tackling the global bird flu crisis.
He was giving the 2007 Snowden lecture, held in honour of the animal health laboratory's foundation chief Bill Snowden, who was in the audience.
Dr Vallat said Geelong Animal Health Laboratory's work on avian influenza and other animal diseases was the best of its kind in the world.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2007/07/12/5352_news.html
Michaela Farrington
12Jul07
AN international expert on animal disease last night warned Indonesia had become strongly infected by avian influenza, posing a risk to Australia.
The director general of the World Organisation for Animal Health, Dr Bernard Vallat, said Indonesia was struggling to control bird flu and had become a reservoir from which the disease could spread to neighbouring countries.
``It is dangerous for Australia,'' Dr Vallat said last night after delivering the 2007 Snowden lecture at the CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong.
``The situation in Indonesia is not good because there is no national chain of command,'' Dr Vallat said.
``Small regions are independent, they say what they want, which is not good for managing disasters.
``Disasters need strong political decisions to save the whole country, not only part of the country.''
But despite the warning, Dr Vallat's lecture contained some good news on the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
Dr Vallat said fewer people and fewer domestic poultry had been infected this year than in 2006.
And the death rate for infected wild birds had also dropped dramatically this year.
And despite the millions of contacts between people and infected birds since 2003, Dr Vallat said only small number of people had become infected, indicating the influenza was not easily transmitted between birds and people.
Strengthening veterinary services in developing countries and providing compensation to farmers who reported outbreaks in their poultry were among Dr Vallat's recommendations for tackling the global bird flu crisis.
He was giving the 2007 Snowden lecture, held in honour of the animal health laboratory's foundation chief Bill Snowden, who was in the audience.
Dr Vallat said Geelong Animal Health Laboratory's work on avian influenza and other animal diseases was the best of its kind in the world.