The Virus

The bird flu is caused by a type of influenza A virus, namely the H5N1 virus. This virus rose worldwide awareness when it proved potential to cause a pandemic, both in animals and humans. H5N1 can cause illness in humans and animals, birds but also other species. The bird adapted strain of H5N1 referred to the avian influenza is what caused the avian flu in the mid 200s. this strain is known as the HPAI A strain. It may affect different types and species of birds but it has been commonly associated with bird populations in Southern Asia. This particular virus was spread globally after appearing in Asia few years ago. The estimated damage of the avian flu pandemic counts tens of millions of birds killed worldwide and hundreds of millions of others having their culling spurred as a prevention measure against the spread of the virus.

The FAO is the body that supervises the development of such diseases and pandemics. At the time of the pandemic, it came with regular situation updates and with solutions to prevent the illness from spreading in animals and humans. The farmers were almost obliged to vaccinate their birds as a preventive measure. It is believed that these vaccines were extremely efficient in fighting against the virus as the number of outbreaks decreased significantly from 65 in June 2006 and 55 in June 2007 to 11 in June 2008. The global situation had started improving in the first half of 2008, although FAO fears that the number of cases of HPAI is being underestimated because in many countries the cases are being overlooked from a lack of disease surveillance systems. The first pandemic of avian influenza was recorded in 2003 and the World Health Organization estimates 510 cases of human disease out of which 300 resulted in the death of the patients ever since the first outbreak.