A group of senior experts from the veterinary field has demanded to take immediate measures to restrict irresponsible and wrong news being transmitted through media on avian influenza.

Speaking at a symposium on "Avian Influenza - the present scenario and its impact on poultry industry & the possibility of the disease getting transmitted to humans," held on April 3, 2006 at the Bombay Veterinary College, the experts felt that scrutiny should be imposed on news and photographs released by press and media in the public interest, considering the fear created on the disease among the public.

Speakers opined that avian influenza is a species specific disease and the virus jumping species barrier to human beings is an uncommon occurrence, as it requires some thing like a mixing vessel for virus to get mutated and get pathogenic to humans. Human to human transmission of avian influenza virus is not recorded till date. For a pandemic threat to emerge, the consequential transmission of bird flu virus to human beings and its subsequent transmission from human to human needs to be recorded and established. Nevertheless, any public health system can always have an influenza pandemic preparedness plan. Influenza pandemics could also emerge from the existing human Influenza virus reassortants.

Bird Flu is a pathogen and problem for the poultry birds rather than being a pathogen and a problem for the human health. Any influenza pandemic due to the jump of the avian influenza virus to the human beings is a remote possibility. As to establish pandemic of bird flu in humans, a sustained transmission of infection from birds to humans and then from human to human needs to occur. Such thing has not occurred in last ten years.

They noted that human beings on every day basis encounter many fold higher threats from other infectious diseases on a day-to-day life. In India alone, there are millions of human beings suffering from HIV & multiple drug resistance Tuberculosis infection. These have much more far reaching human health implications than bird flu.

The experts recommended that India should intensify disease surveillance, monitoring, re-sampling and reconfirmation from time to time and should develop more avian influenza disease diagnosis laboratories for speedy screening and diagnosis of samples received. Proper and appropriate personal protection equipments need to be provided to the people working in affected areas during culling operations and the bi-security measures should be strengthened at the farm level. Education and awareness programs should be undertaken to remove all misconceptions in the minds of people, they said.

The experts participated in the symposium included Dr. A. T Sherikar, Vice Chancellor, MAFSU, Nagpur, Dr Shrinivas Gowda, Vice Chancellor, Karnataka Vet. Animal & Fishery Sciences University, Banglore, Dr G P Sen, Prof Emeritus & Founder President of Association of Public Health Veterinarian, Dr Ajit Ranade, University Head, Department of Poultry Science, Bombay Veterinary College, Dr Ranjana Deshmukh, director, Haffkine Research Institute & Regional WHO center for Influenza, Mumbai, Dr. Pallavi Bhargava, Head and Consultant Infectious Diseases Control and Internal Medicine, Dinanath Mangeskar Hospital, Pune.

The event was jointly organised by the Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University Nagpur, Bombay Veterinary College, Parel.