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Ireland will cull to stop bird flu

IRELAND will not vaccinate poultry against bird flu, Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan said yesterday.

Instead the country's fowl population will be culled and any suspect or infected flocks killed, she said.

Health ministers meet in Britain today, Thursday and Friday where they will evaluate how prepared each country is for a human flu pandemic and arrange to test systems later this year. EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou admitted that so far, few if any of the 25 member states have full stocks of anti-viral vaccinations against ordinary flu as recommended by the World Health Organisation. Ms Coughlan, at an emergency EU meeting in Luxembourg, said Ireland is concentrating on ensuring early detection and prevention measures are in place. "We are being very, very vigilant and working particularly with those in the poultry sector and others including the Game Council, the Department of Health and Birdwatch and we have informed all the poultry people what to watch out for," she said. The Government has also advised people going abroad not to visit farms or markets where live birds are on sale. There was no need at the moment to tell poultry owners to keep their birds indoors even close to wetlands where wintering birds will be arriving this month. Ms Coughlan said there was no scientific evidence that the virus was spread by wild birds, and fowl from areas where the virus was confirmed are banned from entering the country. In the past, Ireland and other countries have refused to vaccinate animals to be used as food because several countries refuse to import them afterwards. Ann Cahill © Irish Examiner Back to Index 2. Avian flu detected here in migratory wildfowl Avian flu, but not the potentially lethal H5N1 strain, has already been detected in migratory wildfowl here in Ireland, wildfowlers and birdwatchers were told yesterday. The groups, which were being briefed on the current situation by the Department of Agriculture and Food, heard that a number of samples of low pathogenic strains of the flu have been detected in wigeon and mallard. The samples were found during surveys being carried out as part of a European survey of migratory birds which has been ongoing since 2002. It said that many wildbirds migrate to Ireland and it listed those coming from countries already infected, but added that as only a small proportion come here, they presented a theoretical risk of introducing H5N1 here. The groups, which have already been asked by the department to watch out for dead wildfowl, have been advised not to handle live or dead wildbirds unnecessarily and to disinfect their hands after handling them. The National Association of Regional Game Councils was told there are no plans to restrict hunting activities at present, but this was subject to review. Wigeon and mallard are both on a provisional list of wildbird species which the authorities believe present a higher risk in relation to avian influenza The others are the Russian White Fronted Goose, Bean Goose, Gadwal, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Common Teal, Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Northern Lapwing, Ruff, Black Headed Gull and Common Gull. Seán MacConnell, © The Irish Times Back to Index 3. We're ready for bird flu, promises minister IRISH and EU ministers yesterday tried to cool down the growing panic over fears that avian flu will soon hit humans. But they admitted it poses a "global threat". At an emergency meeting, EU foreign ministers called for global cooperation, following the discovery of a potentially fatal strain of the disease in Turkey and Romania, and of a suspected case in Greece. European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou conceded that most of the 25 EU governments lacked sufficient stocks of anti-viral drugs needed to boost resistance in the event of a pandemic. The majority of avian influenza viruses do not infect humans but the H5N1 strain of bird flu has proved to be a lethal exception. It can be passed directly from birds to people, although at present it has not mutated to a form that is easily transmitted from person to person. The H5N1 virus has infected at least 120 people and killed 60 in south-east Asia. Full contingency plans for treating an outbreak of avian flu were in place in Ireland, Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan said following emergency talks in Luxembourg. "We're being very, very vigilant," she said. The minister issued a "strong warning" against anyone travelling to infected countries from going near farms or bird markets. Ireland has not procured avian vaccines which can protect birds against the disease, but department officials are looking at the feasibility of this. Conor Sweeney & Aideen Sheehan © Irish Independent Back to Index 4. Flu could give election the bird THE next general election could be for the birds. If the avian flu pandemic strikes then the election might have to be postponed. Tanaiste Mary Harney yesterday said the poll would be put on hold indefinitely if it coincided with an outbreak here. The Government intends to go to early summer 2007 before seeking re-election. Green party spokesman John Gormley said the pandemic could overtake these plans. "We would not go around from house to house. We could not even shake hands for fear of spreading the virus," he said. Mr Gormley said it was not a question of whether a deadly flu would strike but when. The Taoiseach has spoken of his determination not to hold a poll before the term of office of the Government expires, in May 2007. Mr Gormley said there was now a prospect of the Government staying in office even longer than five years in the event of such an outbreak. There is provision in the Constitution for a general election to be postponed. The President could refuse to dissolve the Dail under Article 2, having independently considered the advice of the Taoiseach. Senan Molony & Geraldine Collins © Irish Independent Bird flu: kick-start vaccination or face the consequences SUDDENLY, the threat of avian flu is getting some serious attention in the US. Representatives of 80 countries met in Washington DC last week to discuss strategies to contain outbreaks of the virus. Meanwhile Michael Leavitt, US Secretary of Health and Human Services, this week made his first official trip to Asia to encourage leaders in the region to do more to stop the virus spreading. And a decision by the US senate to earmark an extra $4 billion to protect the country against a flu pandemic is awaiting approval by the House of Representatives. These moves are welcome, but do not go far enough, flu experts say. Substantial commercial, political and bureaucratic barriers remain that will stop us being able to vaccinate enough of the world's people to contain any pandemic. What is urgently required is a global plan to combat the threat. "Because the virus is new to our immune systems, people will need two injections. That halves the number we can protect". The problem boils down to numbers. A hybrid vaccine virus has already been produced that could immunise people against the H5N1 bird flu virus. But manufacturers can't make enough of it. Production capacity will not significantly increase any time soon, beyond a few new plants already under construction in Europe, and with the equipment available they can make only a few kilograms of the viral protein that forms the basis of the vaccine. If each dose contains 15 micrograms (?¬®g) of viral protein, as in vaccines against ordinary flu, that's enough for no more than 900 million doses of vaccine over a normal six-month production cycle. But that doesn't mean 900 million people can be protected. Because H5N1 is new to our immune system, people will need two vaccinations a few weeks apart. That halves the number who can be protected within six months to 450 million. And even that is likely to be wildly optimistic. "This virus has done a number on us," says Robert Webster of St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In August, human trials of the hybrid vaccine showed that each person would require two 90-?¬®g doses. That equates to enough vaccine worldwide for 75 million people, or around one quarter the US population. The way round this, say vaccine experts, is to boost the power of the shots by combining them with a simple immunity-stimulating chemical called an adjuvant. Norbert Hehme at vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline in Dresden, Germany, has made a vaccine that can induce full immunity against relatives of the H5 family of bird flu viruses with two doses of just 1.9 ?¬®g each. Given existing production capacity for H5N1, this would allow 3.5 billion people to be protected. That is as many as could practically be immunised, given other limitations, says David Fedson, founder of the vaccine industry's pandemic task force. But the US trials did not use adjuvant, despite warnings that without it only large doses would work. Trials of adjuvant with doses down to 7.5 ?¬®g have begun in Australia and Hungary, and are planned in Canada, the US and Japan. But no one is looking at the smaller doses that would be needed to stretch the available vaccine as far as it needs to go. "By not determining the lowest dose that is acceptably immunogenic, the vaccine companies have shown they do not understand the unforgiving arithmetic of pandemic vaccine supply," Fedson told New Scientist. "That means millions will not receive vaccine, and thousands will die. Economists call this an opportunity cost. I call it a tragedy." Commercial considerations are also getting in the way. Companies have not yet worked out how to share patented techniques for making the vaccines, and are reluctant to start human trials on vaccines that have no guaranteed market. "If we have purchase guarantees from governments, that changes things," says Bram Palache of the Belgian-based vaccine maker Solvay. The US, UK and France, among others, have placed such orders in the past few months, which is why trials are now starting, But the constraints on vaccine production mean these orders may never be fulfilled. There are political obstacles too. Nearly 70 per cent of the world's vaccine manufacturing capacity is in five countries in western Europe, and virus expert Albert Osterhaus of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, predicts these countries will be reluctant to allow vaccine to be exported until their own populations are immunised. Fedson, however, believes these barriers can be overcome. What is needed, he argues, is a well-funded international body along the lines of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, launched by the UN in 2002, which has spent $3 billion tackling these diseases. A similar body for pandemic flu, Fedson says, could coordinate vaccine development and fund the testing that will get us the low-dose, adjuvanted vaccine that may be needed to fight a global pandemic. "Wouldn't it be horrible if a pandemic comes and afterwards we discover we could have made far more vaccine?" he says. "We'll look like fools." Such a body could also head off the political crisis that would ensue if vaccine-manufacturing countries decide to immunise their own people before allowing vaccine to be exported. "Can you imagine the conflict that would result if people in Bordeaux get vaccinated and people in Barcelona don't?" says Fedson. By paying into a global collaboration, he says, the "have-not" countries could ensure that they will get a share of vaccines made elsewhere. Something has to give soon. Last week, there were renewed fears that H5N1 had infected birds in Turkey and Romania. As New Scientist went to press, experts could only say that the virus in Turkey might be from the H5 family, while it is unclear what pathogen caused the infection in Romania. But the world is getting increasingly nervous that the virus, or one like it, will sooner or later evolve into a form that can be passed readily between people. If that were to happen, the first wave of infection would spread round the world in weeks. After three months, it would most likely die down, giving manufacturers breathing space to identify the exact strain and produce vaccine to contain a second wave. Yet, if the political will were there, we could already be taking steps to protect ourselves against the first wave. When researchers at the vaccine maker Chiron tested the blood of people who had received an experimental vaccine against a 1997 strain of H5 bird flu, they found it cross-reacted strongly with the H5 flu that killed people in Vietnam last year. This raises hopes that a vaccine against 2004 or even 1997 H5, say, might work against an H5 pandemic strain, even if it differs slightly. "Millions will not receive vaccine, thousands will die. Economists call this an opportunity cost. I call it a tragedy." We are confident that a vaccine is feasible even if it is not fully matched to the pandemic strain, as long as there is a strong adjuvant," Giuseppe del Giudice of Chiron told New Scientist. While it may not protect 100 per cent, it might mean that H5 does not kill so many people. And it would act as a "priming" dose, meaning people would later require only one shot of vaccine matched to the pandemic strain. The science is in place. Now the world needs to push forward to test and license a vaccine. When pandemic fears surfaced with swine flu in 1976, the US government developed, tested and licensed a vaccine, then made enough for most of its people, within six months. "We did it in 1976," says Fedson. "Why can't we do it now?" Debora Mackenzie & Kristin Choo © New Scientist