Thursday, August 31, 2006

ROME, Italy (AFP): The United Nations food and agriculture agency said Wednesday it had produced a booklet preparing small-scale poultry producers in the Caribbean and Latin America for the possible arrival of bird flu.

"Wild birds, particularly aquatic species taking the migration route from eastern Siberia to Alaska or from Iceland to northern Canada via Greenland, could introduce the virus into the American continent," explained Juan Lubroth, a Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) animal health expert.

If the potentially lethal H5N1 strain reached the Arctic it could follow north-south migration routes all the way down to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America, the booklet warns.

"If avian flu does appear in Latin America and the Caribbean it will threaten the food security of the most vulnerable groups in the region. In these countries, poultry generally accounts for over 70% of animal protein consumption," FAO said.

An outbreak could be disastrous for the poultry industry as the American region is the world's biggest poultry producer (4.85 billion birds), with Brazil at the head of the table.

The poultry industry, which is expanding throughout the continent, has become a major source of income and employment and makes an important contribution to rural and peri-urban development, FAO said.

"This information is specifically designed to meet the needs of small-scale and farmyard poultry production units. The handbook stresses simple and affordable methods to prevent and control the disease," said Joseph Domenech, head of FAO's veterinary services.

"It is very important for poultry farmers to be acquainted with the characteristics of this disease so that they can recognize it in the event of an outbreak, and immediately report it to the authorities. Prevention is the most effective weapon to forestall more serious damage and keep Latin America free of this fatal disease," he added.

Domestic poultry smuggling and informal trading within and between the countries in the region, as well as popular cockfighting contests, can also contribute to the expansion of avian influenza.

Even though the H5N1 strain has never been detected on the American continent, in recent years other subtypes of the avian influenza virus (H5N2, H7N3) have caused outbreaks of the disease in Canada, Chile, the United States and Mexico, according to FAO. All were successfully brought under control and eradicated.

The handbook is intended for widespread distribution and has been made available free of charge on the FAO website. It will also be circulated among the staff of local veterinary services and livestock technicians working with small-scale producers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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