Juan Lubroth Quotes (29 Quotes)

They cordoned off the area and increased a surveillance zone to about 10 kilometers. Because some of the poultry were inside the 10-kilometer area, they were sequestered -- no movement in, no movement out. There was rapid sending of the samples for testing, confirmatory diagnosis, quick action on part of the Ministry of Agriculture to hold a press conference and take measures at the local level, and good coordination between the central and provincial governments.

We encouraged the countries to increase surveillance. But I'm not a policeman. What I can do is to ask governments to be more vigilant.

People need to be informed about the importance of basic hygiene notably washing hands after touching poultry and disinfecting boots or shoes before entering or leaving a poultry farm. They should also be aware of suitable farming practices such as ensuring that poultry are roofed-in to avoid any contact with wild birds and not mixing chickens with other species, such as ducks.

If the government is just there to kill the animals and cull them there is the possibility that the farmers won't report cases.

A complete cull of all rural poultry in the country is not necessary and we were very vocal about this when I was there in Turkey.

The risk to humans is less if the disease is in wildlife than if it is in poultry.

It is important to underline that there is no evidence that the H5N1 virus is present in poultry in Italy. At the moment, the disease remains confined to individual cases in wild birds only. The current situation in Italy does not provide consumers with a

We don't have a spread of the virus, what we have is the introduction of the virus into countries of the European Union. The difference is that it's human activities, through commerce, through the market place, through the way we raise our poultry that we get disease spread. The fact that in Europe, in many countries, it's been picked up in migratory birds, is very, very relevant, it means that the European authorities -- Italy, Greece, Germany, Denmark, Austria -- are monitoring, doing active surveillance in the wild bird population.

We still have time to prevent the pathology from becoming an epidemic if Turkish veterinary services receive the necessary aid from international organizations.

We're been looking for it in wild birds for the last two months and it is surprising that we've come up with zero.

Such plans and field operations must be fully supported by national governments with participation of the private sector. The international community should continue to provide expertise and financial resources.

Poultry meat and eggs ... are safe, and the concern is to ensure that there is no spillover from wildlife to poultry production systems.

Markets go throughout Kurdistan and occur on mules and donkeys who cross borders here and there. And chickens are small. It's quite difficult to control.

We don't know how the disease got into Nigeria.

There are other ways diseases move around the world.It could be that wildlife introduced the virus, but through our own activities of commerce, the disease spread.

Immediate reporting by poultry keepers and their community leaders is the biggest safeguard for peoples health status.

How extensive the problem is in India is still not known.

We are still in time to be able to prevent the virus from being endemic in Turkey if the Turkish veterinary services have enough resources.

This is unlikely to make any significant contribution to the protection of humans against avian influenza.

It's very easy to blame bird migration, because then no one's responsible. Migrating birds may introduce the virus into an area, but it is human activity that spreads it.

It's easy to blame migrating birds, because then no one is responsible.

They are learning to live with the disease and control it when it appears.

What we are seeing is that the surveillance system in Europe is very, very good, since we're picking up disease in migrating swans. If anything, this should increase people's confidence in their food. We're seeing it in migrating swans, not in chickens.

Killing wild birds will not help prevent or control avian influenza outbreaks.

I think that wild birds may introduce the virus but it is through man and man's marketing systems (the poultry trade) that the disease spreads. It is also possible that poultry can transmit the virus to wildlife when they share the same ecosystem.

Infected poultry should be reported immediately and all internationally recommended control measures should be used in outbreak areas, including humane culling, strict isolation and, if and when appropriate, vaccination.

The virus may be spreading despite the control measures already taken. Far more human and animal exposure to the virus will occur if strict containment does not isolate all known and unknown locations where the bird flu virus is currently present.

I would love to have a map of illegal trade - but I'm embarrassed to say we don't have a good handle on it. We all know it occurs and we are worried, but what we see confiscated is only the tip of the iceberg.

We've never seen a disease spread out as much as this one has in the past 18 months to two years.