Urgent FAO Call to Combat Rising Avian Influenza Threat

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization has issued an urgent appeal for a coordinated response to tackle the escalating spread of avian influenza. The virus, notably the H5N1 strain, has reached unprecedented territories and affected various animal species, with human cases also rising. Surveillance and biosafety measures are crucial.

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Thursday called for an urgent and unified response to combat an 'alarming' rise in avian influenza cases in humans and animals across the Asia-Pacific.

The H5N1 virus has spread more widely than ever before, reaching as far as South America and Antarctica and infecting new wild and domestic animals, FAO said in a statement. 'Since late 2023, we have observed a rise in human cases and the virus spreading to new animal species,' said Kachen Wongsathapornchai, regional manager of the FAO's Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases.

'The emergence of novel A/H5N1 strains, which are more easily transmissible, increases the pandemic threat. Immediate, coordinated preventive measures are essential.' The U.N. agency counted 13 new human infections reported in Cambodia since late 2023, with additional cases in China and Vietnam.

Indonesia and the Philippines are facing heightened security due to its diverse ecological landscape and limited biosecurity measures, while India, Nepal, and Bangladesh are also battling outbreaks, FAO said. It urged member nations to work together to implement comprehensive surveillance systems, including full genome sequencing, to track the virus's spread and evolution.

Moreover, FAO called on governments, international organizations, and the private sector to share information transparently, and stressed the need for the poultry industry to strengthen biosafety measures. Bird flu spreads to farmed animals from wild birds.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu has swept the globe in recent years, killing billions of farmed and wild birds and spreading to tens of mammal species. Australia, which is dealing with three parallel outbreaks of bird flu, reported a human H5N1 case in May.

Earlier this year, a Chinese woman died from the rare H3N8 subtype of avian influenza, marking the world's first death from the strain. Scientists tracking bird flu are increasingly concerned that gaps in surveillance may keep them several steps behind a new pandemic, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen leading disease experts.

(With inputs from agencies.)