United Nations to create avian flu early warning system

NAIROBI, Monday (AFP) The UN announced the creation of an early warning system that will track the flight patterns of migratory birds to better assess the global threat of avian flu despite a dearth of funding for the initiative.

While officials grapple over the final details of the system, the program aims to map flight patterns and pin-point high-risk areas where local bird populations are most likely to contact possibly infected migratory species.

"The system will be designed to alert authorities on different continents that migratory water birds are on their way," a UN statement released here said.

The early warning system will enable individual countries to minimize the threat of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, an incurable virus which resulted in the death of more than 60 people in Asia and the slaughter of millions of fowl worldwide.

Health experts warn the virus could mutate and be easily transmitted to humans, leading to the development of a global pandemic.

"This puts us in a much better place to monitor the threat," said British Environment Minister Jim Knight, who announced the creation of the early warning system at a press conference in Nairobi. But Robert Hepworth, executive secretary of the UN's Convention on Migratory Species, said full implementation of the system may take up to two years.

The agency, however, has yet to secure enough money to fund the scheme, which will be administered by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Wetlands International, Birdlife International and the International Wildlife and Game Federation.Bert Lenten, of the African Asian Waterbird Agreement, said the total cost of implementing an early warning system is "difficult to assess" at this point but it could be "quite cheap." "The EU is willing to consider giving some funding to Africa, and UNEP is willing to give some funds," Lenten said.

Currently, UNEP is the only confirmed donor, to the tune of 30,000 dollars (25,500 euros). "It's up to the rest of us to see what we can contribute," Knight said.

With the African continent poised to welcome millions of birds heading south for the winter, experts warn that poor infrastructure will only enable the transmission of the disease.

"This is a big concern in Africa, particularly. Africans are not very well prepared," Lenten said.Officials, however, hope that the system will allow burgeoning economies to make the most of the information without further strapping their state coffers.

"We hope the system will be particularly useful in developing countries which are under particular pressure to make the best use of limited resources," Hepworth said in the statement. Africa is the destination for migrating waterfowl from Europe, Russia and Asia, according to Modibo Traore, director of the Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources. In addition, most of its 1.1 billion chickens are raised outdoors, rather than in enclosed buildings, which increases the risk of infection by visiting birds, he said.

It is also chronically short of veterinarians, epidemiologists, laboratories for checking samples and vaccines to protect against the virus.

Twenty-three African countries have no surveillance system at all, the bureau said. The announcement comes as hundred of delegates are convening at the UN here to attend the eighth week-long conference of the parties to the UN Convention on Migratory Species, set to start Monday.

Delegates will also discuss the detrimental effects of global climate change and plan to sign a new agreement on the conservation of West African elephants.