David Nabarro Quotes on Birds (6 Quotes)

There has been a shift in the susceptibility of wild fowl to H5N1. That's something that needs very careful attention if we're going to be ready for possible introduction of the bird flu virus in other locations through wild fowl.

It seems to kill a very large proportion of the birds that it infects. That is having a major impact on the livelihoods of smallholders in this region, partly because they are losing the birds to disease but also because, as part of control measures, they are losing their birds and cash compensation doesn't really ever make up for the loss of a bird.

The village knew about the dangers from these diseased birds, but somehow that knowledge wasn't turned fully into practice.

Detecting and culling infected birds is still the key, and for that we have to compensate the owners of chicken whose flocks are killed. And we have to limit interaction between humans and birds, which is a huge challenge within an environment where people are used to living very close to their chickens.

The 1.9 billion shows that the world cares greatly about the issues we face and that governments want to be sure that there is enough cash available to do everything they have to do to get the current epidemic of bird flu under control and make sure that we can prepare for a human pandemic.

There's consensus. There's clarity. There's cash. There is much better coordination. We should be able to deal with the bird flu epidemic much quicker and ... if the pandemic comes, it will be smaller as a result of what's gone on at this meeting.