FAO estimates Asia-Pacific bird flu losses at $10 million
The Asia-Pacific region has suffered losses of around $10 million due to the bird flu pandemic, Food and Agriculture Organisations regional representative for Asia Pacific He Changchui said on Friday.
He said over 200 million birds have been culled over two-and-a-half years due to the flu.
All countries need to put in place vigilant surveillance and a timely action plan to prepare against further outbreaks, Changchui told reporters on the sidelines of regional conference on avian influenza control and pandemic preparedness in Asia.
He said all countries in the region need to develop the capacity to rapidly identify the bird flu outbreak, contain it and institute measures to prevent recurrence. Ensuring this response capacity is a costly but necessary investment, he said.
More : financialexpress.com
Related Travel Information
Asia-Pacific steps up preparedness efforts against bird flu
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - China's financial hub Shanghai on Monday started screening international passengers for bird flu amid global fears that the virus could mutate into a more powerful form.
Acknowledging that separation from Asia by thousands of kilometres of sea offers little protection, Australia and New Zealand also took steps to ward off a bird flu disaster.
At least 68 people have died from bird flu since it emerged in Asia in 2003 - nearly two-thirds of them in Vietnam, according to the World Health Organization.
So far, most human cases
Asia-Pacific regional coordination to fight bird flu
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) began hosting Friday a meeting of major partners to discuss regional coordination to meet the threat posed by avian influenza in Asia and the Pacific, the ADB said in a news release.
The event is a follow-up to an informal meeting, where regional donors shared information on their bird flu projects and activities in the region, on the sidelines of the high-level conference on bird flu in Beijing in January, said ADB.
At the Beijing conference, the international community pledged 1.9 billion U.S. dollars for the fight against avian
Lack of aid weakening bird flu control in Asia
Weak disease-surveillance and inadequate aid are thwarting efforts to control bird flu in Asia, according to a senior official of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
The organisations assistant director-general, He Changchui, was speaking at a press conference following a meeting of health and agriculture ministers from 11 Asian nations in Delhi, India last week (27-28 July).
He said international aid was a third of what was needed to combat the epidemic in the region.
In a joint declaration, the meetings delegates pledged to strengthen systems for detecting and containing bird flu outbreaks in people
Trinidad bans dyed feathers from Asia over bird flu
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Trinidad and Tobago's annual Carnival next February will be without feathers from Asia after the government banned their import because of concerns about bird flu.
A shipment of dyed feathers intended for use in costumes will be returned to China after languishing for a week in a warehouse in Port of Spain, the government said.
"The Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources wishes to advise the public that it has barred the entry of several items, among them a container of dyed feathers, into Trinidad
Bird flu not expected to curtail Asia travel
Despite fresh bird flu outbreaks among poultry and new human deaths, tourists are traveling en masse across Asia during the region's peak travel season ahead of Chinese New Year.
"According to the figures from hotels, they've never known such a high occupancy rate," said Olivier Colomes, general director of Exotissimo Travel Group in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the country hardest-hit by avian influenza. "We were really scared about this because everybody was talking about the bird flu as if it would happen tomorrow, but so far nothing has happened."
The Christmas, New Year
