On the same day that Ministry of Agriculture officials were announcing that their final investigations had confirmed that there is no bird flu in The Bahamas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said a lab in the United Kingdom will be testing samples taken from 10 dead birds found on Inagua.
PAHO said its country office in Nassau was assisting government officials with arrangeemnts for testing of the specimens by a World Organization for Animal Health reference laboratory in the UK.
PAHO said it provided information on how to collect, handle, and ship international diagnostic materials and has made contact with the lab, the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England, which has agreed to test the samples.
The organization said it had also arranged for rapid test kits to be sent to Nassau from its Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) to test additional specimens for influenza A.
Two veterinary experts from the Bahamas Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources traveled to Inagua on Wednesday to investigate the bird deaths and to obtain specimens for testing.
According to the senior veterinary officer, 10 birds, whose decomposed carcasses were found, appeared to have died some time ago of unexplained causes.
Earlier reports of higher numbers included several birds that had died of explainable causes, including aging, hunting, and a dog attack. The veterinary officer said there were no signs of illness in other birds in the area, as might be expected if the lethal H5N1 bird flu virus were present.
Meanwhile, PAHO officials emphasized that no one can predict if or when avian influenza will reach the Americas, but the risk exists.
“The key to fighting H5N1 is to make sure we have effective surveillance, with quick reporting, and to be prepared to respond to any outbreak, if and when it occurs,” said Albino Belotto, head of PAHO’s Veterinary Public Health programme.
PAHO and the World Health Organization have warned that the international spread of H5N1 in birds increases the chances that the virus could mutate to become easily transmissible from person to person, which could spark a global pandemic.
PAHO/WHO has been providing assistance to its member countries on the development of national pandemic preparedness plans.
The organization hosted a five-day workshop in Panama in late February for officials from Central America and the Dominican Republic, to assess and coordinate their national flu preparedness plans. Also in February, PAHO and the government of Trinidad and Tobago organized a three-day workshop on risk communication on avian and pandemic flu.
PAHO was established in 1902 and is the world’s oldest public health organization. It works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and the quality of life of the people of the Americas.
The Bahama Journal
