Dutch bird flu came to brink of human catastrophe
He was addressing the Conference on Infectious Disease in the Netherlands.
Human-to-human transmission of the bird disease virus resulted in 80 human cases of avian influenza, one of which was fatal.
Resolute action by the European Commission, and the Dutch, Belgian and German authorities kept the disease at bay, said Byrne.
"We must learn the lessons of this episode, as well as from SARS and the current outbreak of avian influenza in Asia", he warned.
The outgoing Commissioner gave details of the Commission's proposals to combat emerging zoonoses (diseases transmissable from animals to humans).
He said public health policy needs to have a much greater role in farm animal rearing practices, to ensure human health protection.
"Policies need to encourage a shift way from intensive rearing and to ensure the adequacy of risk management measures at farm and production unit level."
He listed factors which could lead to a pandemic brought about, for example, by convergence of human and animal influenzas.
"While we have witnessed the deaths of millions of animals in Europe over the past couple of years, are we prepared for the deaths of 10 or 20 million of our fellow citizens arising from the mutation of a human and animal virus that we cannot control?", asked Commissioner Byrne.
He said that unless farmers, producers, public and private authorities and everyone else involved are 100% open and transparent at all stages, the already bad zoonosis situation can only get worse. "In the absence of a thorough EU-wide zoonoses strategy, I remain to be convinced of individual Member States' capacities to deal optimally with zoonotic threats", he warned.
He said communication with the public is a key area, but a potentially troublesome one.
"For example, the only solution to stamping out a zoonotic outbreak may be to cull millions of animals, including citizens' pet animals. How do you explain this to a public which thinks that a vaccine or a pill is the cure for everything? This takes skill and courage, and an amount of political risk. But it must be done", said the Commissioner.
European Commission proposals also stress the benefits of improved interaction between human and veterinary influenza surveillance systems. The Brussels plan also calls for urgent work on vaccines and anti-virals for influenza.
"Our citizens will find it difficult to understand that we have a higher level of vaccine preparedness for animals than for people", he noted.
