Bird flu could become entrenched in the Black Sea, Caucasus and Near East regions and could spread in the spring to Europe and Africa through trade and bird migrations, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on Wednesday.
”FAO is concerned that with trade, the movement of people and animals and migratory birds, new countries could become infected,” FAO deputy director general David Harcharik said in a statement issued by the UN agency’s headquarters in Rome.
”Countries in Africa deserve special attention,” Harcharik told an international donors conference in Beijing, China. He said its presence in Turkey meant it had reached a country that lies at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa.
”There is a real risk of further spread. If it were to become rooted in the African countryside, the consequences for a continent already devastated by hunger and poverty could be truly catastrophic,” Harcharik said.
FAO has already warned that bird flu risks becoming endemic in Turkey, where more than 20 people have so far tested positive for the virus.
And bird flu is now the suspected cause of the death of a woman in a village in neighbouring Iraq.
Harcharik said fighting the avian influenza virus in animals remained ”the most effective and cost-effective way to reduce the likelihood of H5N1 mutating to cause a human flu pandemic.”
FAO urged all countries along the routes of migratory birds to be highly vigilant and be prepared for a further spread of the disease in animals.
An international donors meeting in Beijing has pledged about $1,9-billion to help poorer nations prevent and control the spread of the virus.
The bank estimates that at least $1,2-billion to $1,4-billion will be needed over the next three years to combat bird flu. – Sapa-DPA