Heightened Vigilance Urged to Control Bird Flu

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) emphasizes the need for increased measures to control bird flu spread among animals to prevent human cases. WOAH's Director General, Emmanuelle Soubeyran, calls for better monitoring, awareness, and wider vaccination use to tackle this unprecedented outbreak affecting multiple species globally.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has stressed the urgent need for stricter measures to curb the spread of bird flu among animals, particularly to prevent the emergence of human cases. This comes after the first known death from the virus in the United States, underscoring the disease's potential threat to humans.

Bird flu, scientifically known as avian influenza, has swiftly spread across continents in recent years. It has devastated poultry populations, led to rising food prices, and sparked fears of another pandemic. According to WOAH Director General Emmanuelle Soubeyran, effective risk management is crucial at the animal source to curtail the virus's transmission to humans.

Soubeyran has urged for heightened investment in the surveillance of the virus among wild birds and animals, pointing to the current outbreak's unprecedented scope and the range of species infected globally, including U.S. dairy cattle. Lack of awareness could facilitate the virus's spread among poultry and livestock, enhancing mutation possibilities that could lead to a new pandemic. Soubeyran advocates for increased vaccination efforts to complement other control measures.

(With inputs from agencies.)