Disaster experts meet in Australia to discuss bird flu

The group of 21 member countries, including Australia, Japan, Indonesia and the U.S., will meet this week to discuss a coordinated response to a global outbreak of the deadly bird flu.

It is hoped any gaps in preparedness will be identified.

The meeting comes amid warnings that international travel would be virtually wiped out in a pandemic.

According to Australian Health Minister Tony Abbott overseas travel would almost cease for a "significant period" if avian flu broke out in the region.

Abbott told the media that regardless of what border controls countries might instill, very few people who will be eager to travel.

He says Australia would do all it could to bring home Australians abroad during a pandemic, but refused to state whether Australia would accept flu refugees attempting to escape a flu pandemic in their own countries.

Mr Abbott has already said that Australia would consider closing its borders in a pandemic.

Also at the forum will be the International Red Cross, and observers from the Pacific Island Forum, Burma, Cambodia and Laos.

To date seven Indonesians have contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu since last December, and four of these have died.

Avian influenza (also known as bird flu) is a type of influenza virulent in birds. It was first identified in Italy in the early 1900s and is now known to exist worldwide.

Infection

The causative agent is the avian influenza (AI) virus. AI viruses all belong to the influenza virus A genus of the Orthomyxoviridae family and are negative-stranded, segmented RNA viruses.

Avian influenza spreads in the air and in manure. Wild fowl often act as resistant carriers, spreading it to more susceptible domestic stocks. It can also be transmitted by contaminated feed, water, equipment and clothing; however, there is no evidence that the virus can survive in well cooked meat.

Cats are also thought to be possible infection vectors for H5N1 strains of avian flu (Kuiken et al, 2004).

The incubation period is 3 to 5 days. Symptoms in animals vary, but virulent strains can cause death within a few days.

In the latest outbreak of the virus in China, about 2600 birds died at a farm near the Inner Mongolia provincial capital of Hohot last week.

The Australian Government has announced tougher quarantine measures after authorities in Melbourne found three pigeons imported from Canada had been exposed to the bird flu virus.

Prime Minister John Howard said that so far, the avian influenza virus had not mutated into a form that could spread easily from human to human, and according to advice, that risk was low, but they are leaving nothing to chance.