Flutrop CIRAD Avian Influenza

The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus has been established in Southeast Asia since 1997. It spread to Europe in 2005 and Africa in 2006. Sanitary conditions in developing countries are propitious to the development of the virus, and could trigger the appearance, either through mutation or recombination, of a potentially pandemic human flu virus. As a result, international action in such countries is vital in terms of both solidarity and public health, both veterinary and human. FluTrop is a bilingual website (http://avian-influenza.cirad.fr), designed by experts at CIRAD in partnership with the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MAEE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which includes a range of information on the disease. The state of the art in terms of research–virology, epidemiology and ecology–is presented, as are the various current and future research and monitoring projects at CIRAD and its partners. Current work and workshops are focusing on countries affected by the virus or at risk of infection, in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The site also contains more general information, including recent news on CIRAD activities, a calendar of events relating to avian influenza and reports on the situation concerning the disease worldwide. In particular, the location and number of virus hotspots are available online, in the form of maps and useful links to partners' websites. There are also plans to add databases on aviculture operations worldwide, trade statistics, virus strains, etc, in the near future. A newsletter and RSS feeds report on the news on and updates of the website, notably as regards to events and publications.