Flutrop CIRAD Avian Influenza

The national poultry production is about 23 million of head, divided into 3 main sectors: village poultry production, semi-commercial sector and commercial sector (with higher biosecurity and more than 10 000 animals). The majority of the poultry is reared under backyard or small-scale systems (75%). The semi-commercial sector is composed of 3 categories: small (500-1000 birds), medium (1000-5000 birds) and big (more than 5000 birds). The semi-commercial and commercial farms are breeding layers, broilers and ducks. The greater part of farms is concentrated around cities and along the Thai border in the North-West side and along the Vietnamese border in the South-East. In Cambodia the first outbreak of H5N1 HPAI in poultry occurred in January 2004, since then 22 outbreaks were confirmed and 7 persons died from the disease.

Cambodia is included in the RIVERS project ( Resistance of Influenza Viruses in Environmental Reservoirs and Systems ), funded by EU and coordinated by the Pasteur Institute, the project aims for improving the prevention and the control of the disease through a better understanding of the role of environment (water, manure, excrement, air, soils, housing…) in the survival of the virus and in the re-emergence of outbreaks.

Within the framework of this project, the following activities will be undertaken in Cambodia and in Montpellier in coordination between the Pasteur Institute and the CIRAD:

- Research study in Montpellier in order to evaluate the contribution of remote sensing in the characterisation of water properties and to identify environmental parameters, from MODIS images, on a province scale. Data from the surveillance will be analysed in order to study the spatial distribution of AI outbreaks, and, in the case of a spatial heterogeneity, to identify environmental risk factors being able to explain this heterogeneity.

- Study in Cambodia in order to describe the mortality of poultry in village sectors and to specify a case-definition of H5N1 in Cambodia. Then to define and carry out statistical analysis of surveillance data in the framework of « spatio-temporal analysis of disease emergence and virus survival in rural areas of Cambodia » of the RIVERS project.

- The physical parameters of water tested within the framework of the experimental studies will be measured in the field in various villages, this in order to evaluate whether the environmental conditions in Cambodia allow or not the survival of the virus in water. For that, series of measurements, four times in a year (maximum rain season, dry season, and intermediate moments), have to be considered.

Contacts :

• Dr Sirenda Vong

Head of Epidemiology and Public Health Unit
Institut Pasteur du Cambodge
5 Bld Monivong, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
PO Box 983

• Dr Philippe BUCHY

Head of Virology Unit
Institut Pasteur du Cambodge
5 Bld Monivong, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
PO Box 983