Asian bird flu endemic and may worsen - OIE/FAO

The deadly bird flu virus remains endemic in parts of Asia, where it will not be eradicated soon and poultry movements following the tsunami disaster may worsen the crisis, world animal agencies said on Tuesday.

"Recent experience shows it may be impossible to eradicate the virus soon," the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the world animal health body OIE said in a statement.

"The disease will be present for several years in the countries that experienced outbreaks in 2004."

Doctors in Vietnam on Monday confirmed the death of a 10-year-old girl from the H5N1 bird flu virus, raising the country's toll to 12 since the disease erupted again in December. Since the end of 2003, bird flu has killed 44 people in Asia - 32 in Vietnam and 12 in Thailand.

The FAO and Pais-based OIE said the immediate challenge was to control the virus at its source in infected countries and stop its spread to other regions.

"Strict biosecurity measures need to be applied throughout the poultry production chain, from farms and smallholdings to distribution channels, markets and retailers," they said.

"The tsunami disaster may worsen the bird flu situation in Asia due to the large-scale movement of poultry."

The two groups will send experts to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives this week to assess the livestock sector's loss and future rehabilitation needs.

"The international community has to realise that some poor countries in Asia living with the bird flu virus must receive more support to intensify precautionary measures," they said.

There will be a regional FAO/OIE meeting on the H5N1 virus on Feb. 23-25 in Ho Chi Minh City and a conference on controlling the disease in Paris on April 7-8, organised in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

WHO last week raised the possibility of human-to-human transmission of avian influenza following confirmation that two Vietnamese brothers had contracted the disease and one had died.