East Africa is more vulnerable to bird flu than Europe and its lack of preparedness causes grave concern, a U.N. food agency expert said on Monday. Joseph Domenech, veterinary chief at the Food and Agriculture Organisation, said the wild bird migratory patterns that had brought the virus to Turkey and Romania ended in East Africa, making it likely the disease would arrive there. "There are big worries with regard to eastern Africa," Domenech said in an interview with Reuters Television. Those worries were directly linked to fears that the underdeveloped East African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia, were totally unprepared to cope with the arrival of the deadly virus. "If the disease comes into this region it will be very difficult to have an appropriate early response and early detection such as you saw in Turkey," he said. Domenech said Africa's poorest countries were also unlikely to be able to afford to stockpile the expensive anti-viral drugs that the richer European countries are buying to help limit a human pandemic. "The question is how do you prevent the spread of a new pandemic when you are waiting for vaccines," he said. Turkey and Romania have discovered cases of the deadly H5N1 strain. They have since staged mass culls of poultry and are keeping large areas under surveillance. No human cases have been reported in Europe, but more than 60 people have died from H5N1 in Asia, the most likely epicentre of any human pandemic. By contrast with Africa, Domenech said Europe had shown it was able to act "appropriately and immediately" to the alert, raising hopes the virus could be contained. But he warned that culling fowl would not be enough. "The globalisation of trade, the globalisation of movements of people also bring a higher risk of spreading the disease over long distances. Wildlife is only part of the problem and the extent of the risk is not totally known," he said.
