A severe Dutch outbreak of bird flu is seen spreading across Europe, mildly infecting humans and prompting fears that a mutated version of the virus could spark a flu epidemic in people, authorities said on Thursday.
"It is possible. Up to now avian flu has never acquired the
ability to transmit from one person to another -- if it does ... it
could cause a large number of infections," World Health
Organization spokesman Iain Simpson told Reuters.
"There has been a number of influenza pandemics over the
centuries and the last one was in the late 1960's, so there is a view
that we're overdue another one, although that doesn't mean it's going to
happen any time soon," he added.
While the WHO, the U.N. health agency, said it was possible that the
disease could turn into a serious human epidemic, international food and
animal health authorities dismissed the idea.
Several farm workers in the Netherlands suffered from eye infections
caused by bird flu. The new worry is that the disease could mutate and
jump to humans after several pigs were found to have antibodies to the
avian flu.
Simpson said that any flu hybrid created would be different from
severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which has killed about 160
people worldwide.
"SARS is not a pandemic and it's different from flu in many ways
in that it's easier to catch flu but then it gives most people a less
serious illness than SARS does." Nerves are jangling in Germany, as bird flu approached to within a mile
of its border on Thursday. French, British, Portuguese and Spanish
authorities were less concerned, despite worries that migrating wild
birds could spread the disease. The chief form of transmission, however,
is consumption of infected materials or feces.
"The situation is extremely precarious," German Junior
Agriculture Minister Alexander Mueller said in a statement on Thursday.
In the Netherlands, 15 million out of more than 100 million birds
have been slaughtered as authorities battle to suppress its spread.
German authorities have announced new measures to combat the disease,
with farmers ordered to report any reduction in poultry flocks
performance, bans on pigeon racing and appeals to people not to take pet
birds on Easter holidays to the Netherlands and Belgium.
"We are now waiting and hoping," said Stefen Sallen,
spokesman for the farmers' association in North Rhine Westphalia, the
state next to the closest Dutch case. "It would be a terrible blow
for us if it comes into Germany."
"The top spread of this virus is through either oral or fecal
consumption. While it's true that migratory birds could spread the
disease -- that is always with us -- what's happened in this instance is
that the virus has mutated from wild birds into domestic poultry,"
said a spokesman for Britain's Department of Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs.
"We're always aware of the risk of avian influenza from
migratory birds, however the outbreak from Holland doesn't necessarily
mean the risk is heightened -- it's always with us," he added.
"The danger of infection is actually much more through poor
biosecurity," he said, adding that UK farmers had been issued with
advice on maintaining high disease prevention measures.
But British pig specialist Dr Michael Meredith said the spread via
migratory wild fowl was inevitable.
"There is a risk here -- if the virus gets into the wild bird
population it will be very difficult to control," he said.
Meredith also raised the possibility of a new virus hybrid.
"Pigs have been kind of a mixing vessel for the big pandemics
over the years. They're susceptible to avian flu and human flu. When the
two viruses get together they can form a hybrid virus, which has the
malignancy of the avian virus," he said.
International food and animal health authorities dismissed worries of
the bird flu turning into a serious human disease.
The Paris-based International Animal Health Organization said there
was no clear evidence of any risk to consumers.
"There is no way this could turn into a human virus like SARS,"
Alex Schudel, head of OIE's scientific and technical department, told
Reuters.
Peter Roeder, animal health officer of the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization, said tough controls were now in place to curb the spread
of the disease but he could not rule out the possibility that wild fowl,
such as ducks, geese and swans, could spread it.
"The indications are that the avian flu is still spreading and
is not under control," Roeder said.
Roeder ruled out any link between the avian flu and SARS.
"There is no link at all," he said. "They are caused
by two different agents. SARS is very clearly a very different virus
from the avian flu virus."
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