Asia to unite against bird flu

cctv.com 01-29-2004 09:17

Agriculture and health officials from the Asian economies affected by bird flu and world major chicken importers on Wednesday afternoon vowed to exchange information and share technology to address the poultry epidemic crisis.

Officials from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, Vietnam and the European Commission attended the emergency summit in Bangkok and adopted a joint statement. All parties attending the meeting agreed to promote rapid, transparent, and accurate exchange of scientific information to provide early warning of potential outbreak.

Surakiart Sathirathai, Thai Foreign Minister and Chairman of Meeting, said: "Transparency, promptness and coordination at the national, regional and international levels were recognized as essential. Daily contact and information exchange among countries concerned and also with international organizations was encouraged."

The participants admitted that the disease not only severely affected the poultry industry in affected countries, but also was a potential threat to human health. They pledged to step up surveillance of the virus across Asia and to set up a regional veterinary network.

The governments also vowed to strengthen cooperation with regional and international organizations on joint research and development initiatives.

Except Malaysia, the US and the European Union, other members of the summit have all reported outbreaks of the fowl disease, which have claimed 10 lives in Vietnam and Thailand so far. Millions of chickens have been culled in these countries.

Editor:Zheng  Source:CCTV.com