LONDON, England (Reuters):
EUROPE'S POULTRY industry counted the multimillion-dollar cost of the spread of bird flu in lost sales yesterday after United States agencies urged more funds to fight a possible deadly human pandemic that could kill millions.
As the world took steps to try to prepare for such an outbreak, Romania detected new cases of the deadly H5N1 virus in a village west of Bucharest and Switzerland found more bird flu in wild birds and Turkey in poultry flocks.
China issued a national bird flu warning that migratory birds returning during the spring could cause more human cases.
WEAK LINKS
"There are some places where prevention and control efforts have weak links," Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu told a cabinet conference on Friday. China has had 14 human cases of people infected with H5N1 bird flu, eight of them fatal.
H5N1 has killed birds in more than 30 countries stretching from South Korea to Germany and into Nigeria and Niger. It has spread to 14 new countries in a month, and infected 174 people, killing 94 of them.
Scientists say H5N1 is mutating steadily and may eventually acquire the changes it needs to be easily transmitted from human to human. Because people lack any immunity to it, it could sweep the world in a matter of weeks or months, killing tens of millions and bringing economies to their knees.
The United States Congress has approved US$3.8 billion of the US$7.1 billion President George W. Bush asked for last year to prepare for a possible pandemic.
LOT OF TIME, MONEY NEEDED
"But it really takes a lot of time and a lot of money. There are a lot of black boxes out there where something could emerge and we won't be able to find it," Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee. "Our current situation now is not a good situation. We have these ongoing and widespread outbreaks," said Gerberding, as agency heads asked for funds for networks to fight bird flu.
France's poultry sector, the biggest in Europe, is now losing 40 million euros ($48 million) a month as bird flu hits sales at home and abroad, French officials said on Friday.The Paris government has said more than 40 countries have restricted imports of French poultry following the outbreak of H5N1 at a turkey farm in the east of the country. There have also been around 30 cases in wild birds in the same area.
