Avian Influenza: Trade Issues

Authors

Toby Moore, USA Poultry & Egg Export Council USA Poultry & Egg Export Council Stone Mountain, Georgia
Nancy Morgan, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Commodities and Trade

Date of this Version

2006

Comments

Published in CAST Commentary QTA2006-2 April 2006

Abstract

In 2003, an outbreak of a highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza (AI) in Southeast Asia, notably in Vietnam but also in Thailand, focused extensive local and international media coverage on the disease and its potential human health consequences. The media coverage has followed subsequent AI outbreaks in the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and Japan, and westward through Russia into Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Health officials remain on alert because the virus has crossed the species barrier, causing more than 100 human deaths over the last 2 years. Other deaths, most recently in Turkey and the Middle East, have been linked to AI. A recent CAST commentary, Avian Influenza: Human Pandemic Concerns, addresses the human health issues (CAST 2006).