By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) March 22 urged Asian nations recently stricken with bird flu to be cautious about premature declarations of victory over the avian influenza virus.

Eight nations in the region have had outbreaks of a deadly avian influenza virus over the last several months. An estimated 100 million birds have been culled in containment efforts or have died from the disease.

FAO and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) issued a joint statement March 19 saying that China, Thailand and Vietnam have made significant strides in controlling their outbreak, but also warning that the crisis is not over and the highly infectious strain -- known as H5N1 -- could still spread within and between countries.

Indonesia is one country where the virus is prevalent and still spreading, FAO announced March 22. Although the U.N. agency has cited the effectiveness of some nations in containing the epidemic, the situation in Indonesia is raising concerns about the Indonesian government's ability to respond effectively.

"Due to inadequate resources the government is not able to fully implement appropriate measures to prevent the movement of animals, poultry products, equipment, personnel, feed and vehicles from affected farms, sub-districts, districts, provinces and islands," said Joseph Domenech, chief of FAO's animal health service in a statement issued in Bangkok, Thailand. "In addition, many poultry farms are not able to apply basic biosecurity measures."

Since the beginning of this outbreak, health officials have warned about the possibility that the virus can hitch a ride from farm to farm as a deadly passenger on the most routine of trips through an agriculture district. Experts at the FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) have warned about the need for coordination and cooperation among poultry producers and government health officials to ensure that the virus is contained, but also have acknowledged the difficulty in achieving that goal in the many remote, rural areas where poultry is being raised.

The economic loss of some 100 million birds is serious, but the potential human health threat is the worrisome to officials watching this situation over the last few months. More than 30 human cases of the H5N1 have appeared, all of them in Thailand and Vietnam. The ability of the virus to jump species and fatally infect human beings gave officials reason to suspect a strain might develop with ability to be passed from human to human. In the past, such circumstances have led to deadly worldwide flu outbreaks that have killed millions.

A human epidemic has not yet occurred with this outbreak of avian flu, but FAO remains concerned that it could. "As long as the H5N1 virus is not fully under control, the potential threat to human health remains," according to the FAO statement.

In a situation report issued March 2, WHO emphasized the unprecedented nature of this bird flu epidemic. The agency cited three main reasons this epidemic was unlike any previous outbreak:
-- Poultry in Asia usually is kept in small-scale farms located over wide areas, a fact that increases the difficulty of controlling the outbreak;
-- The outbreak is occurring in a region with little previous experience in coping with such widespread disease; and
-- In many cases, WHO found local authorities have few resources for implementing a widespread containment effort.