It will take ten or more years to eliminate avian flu, H5N1, from poultry in Vietnam and another five countries, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday.

 

Quoting its latest report, FAO said the virus remains entrenched in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam due to three factors.

 

One of the issues is the countries’ poultry sector structure involving complex production and market chains, in which poultry are reared and sold with little protection from influenza viruses.

 

Meanwhile, associations supporting farmers are weak, according to the report, named Approaches to Controlling, Preventing and Eliminating H5N1 HPAI in Endemic Countries.

 

Other problems are the quality of public and private veterinary and animal production services there, and the level of commitment to dealing vigorously with H5N1, it said.  

 

"The fear of H5N1 does not necessarily translate into concrete plans for virus control and elimination," the organization quoted the report as saying. 

 

The report also pointed out the constraints of Vietnam’s efforts to eliminate H5N1 like the insufficient knowledge of where infection is occurring, and difficulties in sustaining a large scale vaccination campaign.

 

The organization suggested Vietnam first analyze its poultry sector and then apply measures to strengthen its structure, production practices, and market.