THE GLOBAL STRATEGY FOR PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF H5N1 HIGHLY PATHOGENIC AVIAN INFLUENZA

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THE GLOBAL STRATEGY FOR
THE GLOBAL STRA
PREVENTION AND CONTROL
OF H5N1 HIGHLY P
OF H5N1 HIGHL
A
Y P THOGENIC
A
AVIAN INFLUENZA
A
Revised March 2007
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 2007

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Acknowledgements
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for
Animal Health (OIE) acknowledge and are grateful to the World Health Organization (WHO) for the
close collaboration and helpful discussions in producing this third revision of the Global Strategy;
whereby correctly addressing the issues of prevention and control of avian influenza viruses with a
zoonotic potential can avert human illness and a human pandemic.
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply
the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or
of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
ISBN 92-5-000000-0
All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for
educational or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission
from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of material in
this information product for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without written
permission of the copyright holders. Applications for such permission should be addressed to the
Chief, Electronic Publishing Policy and Support Branch, Information Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di
Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy or by e-mail to copyright@fao.org
© FAO 2007

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iii
Contents
Foreword
v
Abbreviations
vii
Executive Summary
ix
Background and rationale
1
THE STRATEGY
3
1. The vision
3
2. The priorities
3
3. Strategic domains
4
3.1 The global domain
5
3.2 The regional domain
7
3.3 The national domain
9
ANNEXES
Annex 1 Situation analysis
19
A1.1 Regional analysis
19
A1.2 Socio-economic impact
24
Annex 2 Lessons learned
27
A2.1 Risk factors
27
A2.2 Lessons learned from HPAI control tools and methods
29
A2.3 Lessons learned from regional and global coordination
32
Annex 3 Partnerships and implementation
35
A3.1 FAO’s Global Programme for HPAI Prevention and Control
36
A3.2 OIE’s Programme
36
A3.3 Significant milestones and expected outputs
38

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Foreword
Since the current panzootic of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) caused by viruses of
the H5N1 sub-type first resulted in transboundary disease in late 2003, it subsequently spread
from Asia to Europe and both North and West Africa in 2005 and 2006. It has caused high
mortalities in affected poultry flocks, with additional losses due to cul ing. Farmers and trad-
ers have suffered loss of income as a result of market disruption caused by control activities
and also market shock due to consumer concerns for human health. For FAO, OIE and others
concerned with securing the livelihoods of developing country communities, this is sufficient
justification in itself to mount a major campaign to prevent further spread of the disease, con-
tain the disease within infected areas and progressively work towards its eradication.
However, it is the concern for human health, particularly the threat of a human influenza
pandemic, that has drawn world attention to HPAI and stimulated donors to support HPAI
control and preparedness measures for pandemic human influenza. It is generally accepted
that the most important element in addressing the threat of human pandemic influenza is to
control HPAI in poultry, thus limiting opportunities for exposure of humans to the virus and
minimizing the possibility for development, through adaptive mutation or reassortment, of
a virus with the potential to spread easily from human to human.
Following publication of FAO Recommendations on the Prevention, Control and
Eradication of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in Asia in September 2004, the
FAO/OIE Global Strategy for the Progressive Control of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza
(HPAI) was first produced in November 2005. Since then, there has been further spread of
H5N1 HPAI and a substantial rise in international support, with a notable increase in activi-
ties funded through the generosity of a large number of donors, including national govern-
ments, and international development banks and development agencies, including FAO.
The OIE/FAO publication Ensuring Good Governance to Address Emerging and Re-emerg-
ing Disease Threats - Supporting the Veterinary Services of Developing Countries to Meet
OIE International Standards on Quality (last updated in August 2006), provides guidelines on
limiting the spread of epizootic diseases, including HPAI. Capacity-building formed the main
element for elaboration of strategies for the progressive control of HPAI in affected countries
and prevention of the dissemination of the disease to unaffected countries.
Although there remain serious gaps in knowledge, there has been an increased
understanding of the disease during this panzootic and experience with various control
approaches has allowed refinement of strategies at the global, regional and national levels.
The revised global strategy presented here is based on the experience and lessons learned
from the involvement of FAO and OIE in the global control of H5N1 HPAI over the last three
years. The revised strategy provides the long-term vision and goals, identifies priorities and
strategic approaches, and proposes short-, medium- and long-term actions at national,
regional and global level to control and ultimately eradicate the disease.
This strategy has been developed by FAO and OIE - in col aboration with WHO and a num-
ber of experts from OIE/FAO reference laboratories - to give a clear vision for their approach
and to communicate that vision to implementing partners, donors and other stakeholders.

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ii
Abbreiations
ASEAN
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
AU-IBAR
African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources
CMC
FAO/OIE Crisis Management Centre (Animal Health)
DPRK
Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea
ECO
Economic Cooperation Organization
ECTAD
FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases
EMPRES-i
FAO information system for transboundary animal diseases
FAO
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
GF-TADs
FAO/OIE Global Framework for Transboundary Animal Disease
Control
GLEWS
FAO/OIE/WHO Global Early Warning System
Hong Kong SAR
Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region of PR China
HPAI
highly pathogenic avian influenza
H5N1
sub-type of influenza virus (H5 haemagglutinin, N1 neuraminidase)
Lao PDR
Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic
OFFLU
OIE/FAO Network of Expertise on Avian Influenza
OIE
World Organisation for Animal Health
PR China
Peoples’ Republic of China
RT-PCR
Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (real-time laboratory
technique for detecting viral nucleic acid)
PVS
OIE Performance, Vision and Strategy (tool for evaluation of national
veterinary services)
SAARC
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
TADs
transboundary animal diseases
UNDP
United Nations Development Programme
UNEP
United Nations Environment Programme
UNICEF
United Nations Children’s Fund
UNSIC
United Nations System Influenza Coordination
WAHIS
OIE World Animal Health Information System
WHO
World Health Organization

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