A UN sponsored conference on aviation flu has called for establishment of a global tracking and monitoring facility involving all relevant institutions across the globe, including scientific bodies , farmers' organisations, hunters, bird watchers and wildlife conservation societies to check spread of thehunters, bird watchers .
Scientists attending the conference convened by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) also stressed on the need to improve H5N1 disease management system and said enhancement of hygiene at the production level in poultry sector was important to control spread of the disease.'There is a need to mobilize the international donor community to invest in the improvement of veterinary services in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia,' said Gideon Bruckner, head of OIEFs scientific and technical office.
The experts were, however, widely divided over the role of migratory bird in spreading the virus.
Migrating wild birds could continue to spread virus that causes avian influenza, opined some of the 300 experts who attended the just concluded meet, a view that was not shared by many others.
The participants rejected any suggestion of trying to stop the spread of HPA1 by killing wild birds.
'Destruction of wild bird habitats or indiscriminate hunting of wildlife is scientifically and ethically unjustified as response,'they said in the final document.
Source:(PTI News)
