Aug 31 2011
Excerpt:
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation called on countries to adopt “heightened readiness and surveillance” against a resurgence of the virus.
Juan Lubroth, FAO chief veterinary officer, said: “Wild birds may introduce the virus, but people’s actions in poultry production and marketing spread it.”
In the past two years, avian flu has appeared in poultry or wild birds in countries that had been virus-free for some years.
Dr Roland Salmon, the director of Public Health Wales’ communicable disease surveillance centre, said the development of a mutant, vaccine-resistant strain of bird flu should not cause alarm.
“I don’t think this has a great deal of human health implications.
“Any problem that you’re likely to see in Britain is almost certainly going to kick off among British poultry, rather than among humans.
“You’re not going to suddenly get 50 people in Britain infected with bird flu, but you might get a flock of birds here infected,” he said.
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