The survey was conducted in Viet Nam and Cambodia in collaboration with local veterinary authorities. Some live poultry traders were shown to engage in practices that were likely to promote conditions favourable for maintaining H5N1 in markets.

Market characteristics, including type and location, could be used to predict the profiles of traders frequenting the market and, thus, the risk of a given market becoming a virus reservoir.

These results show that easily collected, basic information can be used to identify markets which could potentially sustain H5N1 viruses. Control strategies could potentially be targeted to these specific market groups.

This is particularly important in resource-scarce settings where the live bird market system is extensively developed.

Further Reading You can visit the Avian Flu page by clicking here.