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Bird Flu Fears; Driven to Extremes
Aired October 14, 2005 - 13:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: On edge in Romania, health officials there may have to wait another day to find out if a deadly form of bird flu has moved into their country. A customs delay reportedly is holding up test results on a group of sick birds found in a Romanian village. European officials aren't waiting for test results to take action.
CNN's Fredricka Whitfield has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): It's as though someone pressed the panic button in Europe, now that officials have detected bird flu in Turkey and possibly Romania.
MARKOS KYPRIANOU, EUROPEAN COMM. FOR HEALTH: We have received now confirmation that the virus found in Turkey is an avian flu.
WHITFIELD: Fears are growing that the deadly Asian strain of the virus will spread to humans in large numbers and trigger a worldwide epidemic. Police are searching and disinfecting poultry trucks at the Romanian border. All poultry from Romania has been banned throughout Europe, and the European Union is urging member nations to stockpile antiviral drugs. Many pharmacies have been stripped clean of Tamiflu, believed to be the best medicine against bird flu. Europeans are also rushing to get ordinary flu shots, looking for any protection they can get.
Europe's drug regulator says it could approve within days any vaccine that that might be effective against bird flu in humans.
KYPRIANOU: We don't have today the vaccine for the pandemic, because we don't have the virus. Thank God for that. Nevertheless, we are prepared.
WHITFIELD: Fredricka Whitfield, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: So what are officials in the U.S. doing to protect animals right here from getting this frightening virus? Joining us now is the man who's in charge of safeguarding animals in this country, Dr. John Clifford, the United States chief veterinary officer.
Good to see you, sir.
DR. JOHN CLIFFORD, U.S. CHIEF VETERINARY OFFICER: Good to see you. Thank you for having me on.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's my pleasure.
I did not realize until I started reading the WHO, the World Health Organization research, that actually 1983, '84, this bird flu did get to the U.S.? Seventeen million birds had to be killed because of it. Give me a little background.
CLIFFORD: Yes, in that timeframe, we had what we referred to as a highly pathogenic avian influenza. And let me explain just why we refer to as high path. That really means there's high mortality in birds. And whenever we get an introduction, even of a low-path A.I. that could convert to a high-path, we address that issue as well. We have a $22 million dollar program a year to address low-path and prevent its conversion to a high-path avian influenza.
PHILLIPS: So taking into account that we saw this in the United States. You were able to prevent a catastrophic situation from happening, I would take it as, this is good news. That means we can prevent it from getting to the U.S. this time around.
CLIFFORD: Well, it will certainly take every effort that we have at our disposal to do that. We have trade restrictions in place. We've worked very closely with the Department of Homeland Security and Customs Border Patrol in checking products coming in.
We have heightened our awareness with regards to making sure we don't get smuggled products into the U.S., and if we do get an introduction, we will be prepared to address that and try to immediately address that with our states and eradicate that from the U.S. poultry population.
PHILLIPS: Of course, your main job, safeguard U.S. animal health, tell me what is being done right now to ensure that birds in America are not threatened.
CLIFFORD: We have ongoing surveillance programs in the U.S. with our low path AI program. We monitor what we call live bird markets. We monitor flocks, breeding flocks in the U.S. We also monitor flocks that are for sale for international commerce and so there's a lot of testing being going on in the U.S. for -- to try to do early detection.
There is also a lot being done from the wildlife side through states and through Departments of Interior and USGS, geological service, in looking at wild bird populations. If they see a wild bird die off, they will look at those birds and determine whether they can isolate avian influenza there. So what we do is look for early response and detection. If we find that, we will go in and take immediate action with our state counterparts and the industry to address that.
PHILLIPS: Well, John, as you can imagine, we get a lot of e- mails. And viewers are asking questions like should I buy chickens? Should I be worried about my chicken? What about Thanksgiving and the big bird I want to cook in a couple of weeks or in a few weeks? What do you say to those folks?
CLIFFORD: I don't think they should be worried about their chicken or their turkey. Our food safety inspection service within the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a very good food safety program. Their birds are looked for both antimortem and postmortem inspection for signs of disease. And if those birds are diseased, they do not go into the human food chain.
But in addition, I think everyone should take good food safety measures at home with regards to good food safety practices and cleaning utensils, and washing the hands, not allowing raw product to come next to prepared product and those type of safety practices, cooking your poultry to 70 degrees centigrade and you will be fine.
I think that the important part here is that this particular virus, this H5N1 virus, has not yet adapted to the human/human -- itself to human-to-human spread. And we need to effectively provide -- continue to provide technical expertise to Southeast Asia and address this at the source. Because that's how we would prevent its introduction into the U.S. and further spread and how we would prevent it from becoming a pandemic.
PHILLIPS: U.S. chief veterinary officer, I feel a lot less nervous, John, after talking to you. John Clifford, thank you very much.
CLIFFORD: Thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: My pleasure.
Straight ahead, a quick laugh on the lighter side of medicine. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta in the pits as his NASCAR series continues. Look at -- well, Sanjay, you've got to step it up if you want to be able to race. Live from has a need for speed right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
In NASCAR, the drivers aren't the only ones who feel the need for speed. Robert (ph), my photographer, obviously does. Their crew have just seconds to service the cars and get them back on the track.
And our senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, takes us on a pitstop in his series "DRIVEN TO EXTREMES."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been called ballet without tutus, every step choreographed, two tire changers, two tire carriers, a jack man, a gas man and a catch can man, all moving in unison. Each position requiring a different blend of strength, agility, flexibility, reflexes and coordination.
A good pitstop means four new tires and 22 gallons of gas in 14 seconds. Let your local full service station try that. Phil Horton coaches the pit crews for Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates (ph). He recruits former college and high school athletes with the skill he needs in the pits.
PHIL HORTON, GANASSI PIT CREW COACH: An example of that would be the tire changers. They have to be accurate in what they do, you know, five off, five on with the lugnuts. And they have to be precise. So then we would use a quarterback, wide receiver, somebody who is going to be accurate in what they do and precise. And then that translates into being a good changer.
GUPTA: Wander into one of Coach Horton's practices and you may think it's a football team, working on agility and fitness. A pitstop may look smooth, but the moves are not easy, as I learned for myself.
HORTON: If you take off on the correct foot -- if you come off on the correct foot, you can cut this corner here, and cut this corner here without shuffling your feet. And it can concentrate on working on the lugnut, on hitting the lugnuts. So that is kind of basic Ergonomics 101. That's proper footwork. That's the way it's done. You ready?
GUPTA (on camera): Three point two seconds.
HORTON: That was good.
GUPTA (voice-over): Coach Horton said he could even have me ready for pit row -- in a year-and-a-half.
HORTON: There you go. All right, you got to start over now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, don't miss our upcoming primetime NASCAR special "DRIVEN TO EXTREMES," with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. That airs this Sunday night at 10:00 right here on CNN. LIVE FROM shifts into extra high gear right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Brace yourself, Miss Moneypenny. There's a new 007 in town. James Bond of the 21st century. He's handsome, he's smooth, and yes, we know, he's blond. The rumors are true. Daniel Craig takes the tux for the next Bond adventure, sending shivers through bad guys and Bond girls all over the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL CRAIG, WILL PORTRAY JAMES BOND: I had a confidence about it, but then that's just my -- because of the people around me and I felt good about it. But I knew positively on Monday. It was Monday, yes. I was in Baltimore and I got the phone call.
QUESTION: When you got phone call, what was your reaction?
CRAIG: I need a drink.
I think Sean -- I think it's the first one that, you know, that I came at, you know, the first one I ever saw was a Sean Connery movie, so...
QUESTION: Are you planning to sort of go back to your predecessors and ask them any top tips on the role?
CRAIG: I'm asking everybody for top tips.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right. I'm making the call right now. The next James Bond, a redhead. What do you think?
All right, coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, more video of the beating caught on tape down in New Orleans. Sorry about that. It's kind of a hard transition there. What do lawyers for the cops and the man that they say was drunk and disorderly have to say? Well, we're just moments away when, LIVE FROM continues.
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