Salim Osman, Straits Times 1 Feb 08;
New diseases deadlier than bird flu could surface, UN official warns Indonesia
IN JAKARTA - THE United Nations official heading the global fight against bird flu has warned that the Indonesian practice of keeping backyard livestock could act as an incubator for even deadlier new diseases.
As the H5N1 virus claimed its 101st Indonesian fatality on Wednesday, Dr David Nabarro told The Straits Times: 'We don't have exact statistics but some say at least two new diseases would emerge each year, and 75 per cent of them come from the animal kingdom.'
And he warned: 'Increasingly, the communities of people living very closely to animals risk being infected by not just avian influenza but also other possible diseases, some of which have not even arrived on our doorstep.'
He cited Sars and mad cow disease as two known examples of diseases that originate from animals kept by humans, and indicated that other yet-to-be-discovered diseases could be lurking out there.
Dr Nabarro, who was in Jakarta earlier this week for talks on Indonesia's fight against bird flu, said the officials he spoke to were thinking of improving the country's defences against such diseases while remaining vigilant against bird flu.
He said Indonesia needed to change its poultry rearing practices, by caging birds and keeping them away from humans, as well as improving hygiene standards.
At the same time, he said the country should separate different species of poultry both on the journey to the market and at the marketplace.
Indonesia remains the country hardest hit by bird flu, with its human death toll accounting for almost half of the world's fatalities from the disease so far.
The country's officials have pledged to intensify surveillance of the virus among both animals and humans, but Dr Nabarro warned that the high death toll indicated 'a very high viral load in communities where birds are affected by the disease'.
He said: 'If there are a lot of viruses at community level, there is a risk of mutation that could lead to a pandemic.'
Many of those who died from the infection lived near the teeming capital Jakarta, which is also home to more than 100,000 backyard chickens, ducks, doves and song birds.
But despite his stark warnings, Dr Nabarro said he felt the Indonesian authorities had done a commendable job of curbing the spread of the disease.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the popular Ocean Park has shut its aviaries for three weeks after a dead bird, which was not part of the park's collection, was found with suspected bird flu.
A park spokesman said the aviary closures were just a precautionary measure, and the 900 birds in the park's collection did not display any symptoms of bird flu.
