OIE creates global avian influenza web portal

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has created a web portal on avian influenza.

Photo by Andrea Gantz
Photo by Andrea Gantz

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has created a web portal on avian influenza.

According to the OIE, gaining a better understanding of the disease, providing easy access to recommendations on how to control it, and raising awareness of the current global avian influenza situation are the main objectives for creating the portal.

In the last few months, outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have affected a number of countries in most regions of the world. These events have led to the deaths or preventative culling of hundreds of thousands of birds. The recent global upsurge in this disease reinforces the importance of information-sharing about the disease prevention and control methods that should be put in place locally, as well as the recommendations and actions taken by the OIE at the international level.

The new OIE portal on avian influenza brings together a wealth of information, enabling a greater understanding of the disease and detailing the biosecurity measures recommended by the OIE, at both the farm and trade level, to halt its spread.

This platform describes the actions taken by the OIE and its partners. Indeed, the prevention and control of zoonotic influenzas is one of the three priorities of the alliance between the OIE, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

A dedicated page also provides access to communication tools targeted at various audiences.

Notifications and expert opinions can be accessed in real time

During recent months, the avian influenza strain H5N8, in particular, has been in the news, having been successively identified in several regions of the world, particularly Europe and America, as well as Asia and the Middle-East. The new OIE portal allows us to follow this strain’s global evolution (and that of other H5 and H7 strains), in real time.

In addition, OFFLU, the global network of expertise on animal influenza, created and maintained by the OIE and FAO, recently published a report on the H5N8 situation, as well as advice on surveillance. This global scientific network works to reduce the adverse consequences caused by animal influenza viruses by promoting effective collaboration and information-sharing between animal health experts and the human health sector.

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