Stopping bird flu in Asia could take year or more

Friday, February 27th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Stopping the bird flu epidemic that has killed 22 people and devastated the poultry industry across much of Asia will probably take at least a year, animal health experts said Friday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a regional conference on the disease, the experts stressed that the epidemic is not yet under control.

While the number of infected countries did not increase this month, ``the virus is still circulating in the already infected countries,'' said Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health, better known by its French acronym OIE.

He said the conference heard from experts who warned that it took countries with abundant resources six months to bring previous outbreaks of the virus under control.

``So I think that in the (Asian) region, this period will be longer _ it could take more than one year, minimum,'' he said.

An official of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization gave a similar assessment, saying that experience with similar epidemics should dispel optimistic assumptions.

``This is a sizable problem and it's not likely to be brought under control in a matter of months,'' said Samuel Jutzi, director of FAO's Animal Health and Production Division.

Twenty-three nations _ donor nations as well as the infected countries _are represented at the three-day meeting, which ends Saturday. International aid organizations also are attending.

``We want to see if it's possible to convince donors to give resources to countries which request international support,'' said Vallat.

So far six countries have requested help, said Jutzi, who did not name them.

He said the long term costs could go into the billions of dollars, but the short term need is likely to be in the range of $30 million-$40 million.

The officials indicated that the issue of vaccinating poultry will be addressed when the meeting issues its conclusions Saturday. Scientists are concerned that vaccination in place of slaughter could present new problems if not carried out correctly.

``My feeling is that everybody agrees that vaccination could be the better tool in some situations where the disease has spread in many parts of the country, but in countries such as Japan or Korea, vaccination is not necessary,'' said Vallat, who earlier praised the two East Asian nations' control programs.