Failure to act now.. Will leave us empty handed when a pandemic strikes and will cause needless deaths
Albert Osterhaus
From a public health point of view, I think what is happening in southeast Asia is much more serious than what would be happening in Europe...
health public europe asia view
failure leave act empty
The situation in the Netherlands could be quite explosive because of the huge concentration and numbers of poultry. It is worse than in other countries.
numbers concentration situation worse
The big problem, of course, is that the number of people on whom real extensive pathology has been carried out is limited.
people real problem pathology big
I think we should form a European influenza task force that brings together all our knowledge, so that if you have outbreaks in the future you could form delegations to work together with local experts in the area where it occurs.
force work future knowledge experts form
If we see what is happening in Europe at this moment, I think we have to be worried. We see dead swans and we know that swans are highly susceptible [to H5N1]. And they share their ponds, the places where they swim, with other birds as well that are less susceptible, for instance ducks. And they might have actually infected the swans, so I think we have to be prepared in Europe, especially since the bird migration is about to start.
places moment start share birds europe dead bird
I think it is a worrisome situation, especially because we think that swans could be an indicator species, meaning that swans are relatively susceptible and so it could well be that other aquatic birds could be infected. Now we have seen it in Greece and Italy and now Germany. It is spreading all over Europe.
meaning birds europe italy germany greece situation
There is little you can do about the wild birds, especially the migratory ones, it's very difficult to do anything there and probably it's not possible or even desirable. The most important thing is to now, as much as possible, to have the poultry flocks indoors.
wild birds difficult important thing
Swans fly no more than 50km a day. Looking at the way the disease has spread  one day it's in Italy, a day later it's in the north of Germany  that makes us believe that there are other bird species spreading the disease.
day disease fly bird italy germany
Cat-to-human transmission is theoretically possible and not to be excluded.
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