FAO Urges Rapid Response to Rising Bird Flu Cases in Asia-Pacific

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization has called for urgent regional cooperation to address increasing avian influenza cases in the Asia-Pacific region. New virus strains, particularly A/H5N1, pose a higher pandemic risk. Immediate and coordinated preventive actions are crucial to combat the spread among birds, animals, and potentially humans.

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Thursday called for urgent regional efforts to combat a rise in avian influenza cases across the Asia-Pacific region.

"Since late 2023, we have observed a rise in human cases and the virus spreading to new animal species," Kachen Wongsathapornchai, regional manager of the FAO's Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), said in a statement. "The emergence of novel A/H5N1 strains, which are more easily transmissible, increases the pandemic threat. Immediate, coordinated preventive measures are essential,"

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 reported a human H5N1 case in May. Earlier this year, a Chinese woman died from a rare H3N8 subtype of avian influenza, the world's first death from the strain. Australia, where at least 10 poultry farms have been infected, is dealing with three parallel outbreaks of bird flu.

(With inputs from agencies.)