Avian Influenza and the Pandemic Threat

Source: FAO
19 June 2008 -- Viet Nam should continue to vaccinate and the programme will probably be needed for the next three to five years or longer, even though this will be costly because it will have to be implemented on such a large scale, says FAO.

Speaking to the press during a three-day international conference called to discuss ways of translating avian influenza research into policy, Dr Jeff Gilbert, FAO's avian influenza team leader in Viet Nam, said that because most of the country's farmers do not know about biosecurity, the lack of vaccination would mean that the disease would return and the Viet Nam could face significant fresh outbreaks similar to those in 2004 and 2005.

The 16-18 June conference was co-organized by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The conference heard bird flu-related reports by international experts, including a model outlining the risk and progress of the virus, epidemiology research on viruses on different kinds of poultry, and campaigns to raise public awareness about the disease and its prevention.

Bird flu situation could become complicated

Addressing the conference, Viet Nam's Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bui Ba Bong said avian influenza was temporarily under control in the country but that there was a risk the situation could change and become complicated.

More research on avian influenza is necessary to bring it under control, he told the meeting, saying that more work was needed to understand the nature of the virus, how it was transmitted and on the production of a vaccine to sustainably control a pandemic and minimise virus transmission to humans.

Bong said research should be combined with restructuring of the poultry sector to increase biosecurity and with strengthening of mass education and communication about the disease.

"It is important to have scientific and evidence based information. And it is even more important to get the information translated into decisions and policies," said the FAO Representative in Viet Nam, Andrew Speedy. He welcomed the fact that the Vietnamese government had acknowledged the seriousness of the problem from the very beginning and through an open approach and scientific strategy had succeeded in reducing the spread of the virus.

He stressed the importance of research in deciding measures to effectively rein in the epidemic and warned Viet Nam to reconsider vaccination which he said was effective but costly.

Do Huu Dung, an epidemiologist in Viet Nam's Animal Health Department, said that while statistics show that recent outbreaks are small in scale and few in numbers, they are scattered over many different areas throughout the north, the centre and the south.

"What we need to do is to have a sustainable vaccination strategy to maintain control over bird flu. The current government goals regarding this disease include keeping the frequency and scale of outbreaks at low level, preventing the transmission of the virus to humans and reducing the burden of vaccination on the state."

"Push and pull" to change farming systems

Dr Glibert told participants that two of the country's biggest challenges were to improve surveillance and to change farming systems. He warned against prescriptive solutions telling people to change and called for a process-driven approach, consulting farmers to listen to their points of view and offering incentives.

"So, there is push and pull. They (farmers) will be pushed by legislation but they will be pulled by giving them access to markets. Consumers may be uneasy with chicken but if they are assured that it is of good quality, and for it to be good quality it might cost a little more in a secure market chain, then they have peace of mind, and the farmer feels that he's doing a service and getting the profit incentive to do that."

Communicate with the people

Dr Anni McLeod, a senior officer with FAO's Livestock Division, sounded a word of caution about the impact of messages transmitted to people via mass media. She said studies carried out in Viet Nam were showing that repeated mass media messages were losing their effectiveness. "People have said that they hear the messages but they don't really think it's something meant for them. They feel that they will manage in their own way, and that repeatedly hearing the same messages over and over again does not really have an impact on them."

In response, conference participants concluded that it was important to have much more personal discussion with communities about how they see risks and how they are dealing with the disease rather than constantly giving them the same message over time.

"For many people in Viet Nam," McLeod said, "avian influenza is a part of life, it's not unusual, so we have to think about more direct ways to communicate with people, ways that are more related to their lives, and involve listening to and talking to people."

We may live with this challenge for a very long time. Viet Nam is one of those countries that are really thinking about long-term solutions. These solutions involve good communication with people about what they’re willing to do and what they're not, and make poultry production and poultry markets safer. And more importantly, poor people should never be discouraged to make a living from poultry."