Bird flu epidemic may yet strike again; United Nations warns there's no easy fix: Thailand and Japan already hit with new outbreaks after declaring victory over the disease. World Health Organization reports that it could take years to fully eradicate the problem.(Poultry Market Update)

Quick Frozen Foods International, April, 2004

Don't declare victory any time soon in the war on bird flu, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned Asian countries anxious to get their poultry industries back on track: it could take years to eradicate the infection.

Thailand, which apparently didn't take that warning seriously, nor a similar warning by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) a month later, all but declared victory against the disease March 8--only to have to undeclare it a few days later when a new outbreak was reported. Not only that, but another human died of bird flu.

That latest outbreak of avian influenza in one of the countries previously hit hardest also followed assurances by Bernard Vallat, head of the World Organization for Animal Health, that Asian bird flu was...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.