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Animal health official urges against flu panic

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-25 15:22

PARIS - Governments should avoid causing unnecessary panic about A(H1N1) flu when dealing with the disease, the world animal health body said Sunday.

Countries should take precautionary measures according to rules and scientific evidence, said Barry O'Neil, president of the International Committee of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), at an OIE meeting.

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The six-day meeting, or the 77th General Session of the OIE International Committee, opened here Sunday amid concerns that the fear of the flu virus would hit the world's pork industry hard.

The Paris-based OIE has reacted promptly to the epidemic and corrected some wrong views about the disease, O'Neil told the opening of the meeting.

The swine flu epidemic has infected more than 12,000 people worldwide since breaking out in Mexico in March, raising concerns about the safety of porky and leading to trade restrictions and pig culling in some regions.

The OIE, the World Heath Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations agreed in late April that they would no longer refer to "swine flu" but to "Influenza A(H1N1)." The agencies argued that eating pork does not increase risks of infection and counseled against culling of pigs in the absence of the A(H1N1) virus.

Fears of the flu have brought about losses in the stock raising industry, and the OIE is expected to play a bigger part in fostering the right attitude toward the flu, said representatives from the OIE member nations at the meeting.

For instance, Mexico's pork demand and prices would probably need six months to recover from the 70 percent fall seen in recent weeks, said the country's agriculture minister in mid-May.

The OIE has a total of 174 member countries and territories. The main topic of this year's general session is the influence of climate and environmental changes on new animal diseases.