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Industry confident but still on guard
New Zealand's poultry industry is confident that any
outbreak of avian influenza in the country would be identified and contained
quickly, but industry members remain vigilant.
“However, the extremely strong passive surveillance programmes that we have
in place lead us to believe that
avian
influenza would be identified quickly and any outbreak would not be
widespread,†he said.
The
World Health Organisation reports that the virus has affected
258 humans across the globe, resulting in 153 human deaths since 2003, mostly
children and young adults.
At the
recent Biosecurity Summit in Wellington, the OIE stated that
Australia and New Zealand “are probably the last two countries on earth that
will be vulnerable to the H5N1 strain of avian influenzaâ€.
But Brooks says that New Zealand is still continually reviewing all the
matters that it can control to lessen the risk of H5N1 strain, to protect its
status as a disease-free country.
“We cannot be totally confident, but believe that the industry is in a very
good position to keep avian influenza out,†Brooks says.
Editor WorldPoultry
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