Focus on Notification

All cases of avian influenza must be notified to the competent authorities in Member States. The competent authorities must then notify each primary outbreak (an outbreak that is not epidemiologically linked with a previous outbreak in the same region of a Member State, or the first outbreak in a different region of the same Member State) to the Commission within 24 hours, and secondary outbreaks on a weekly basis.

The mechanism by which the Member States should notify is laid down in Directive 82/894/EEC . Detailed information on each outbreak in a Member State of an infectious disease in animals, listed in Annex I of this Directive is sent by the Member States to the European Commission via the Animal Disease Notification System (ADNS). This also includes a list of diseases for which notification is required. Avian Influenza is in the list in this Directive, but there is no differentiation between High Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza. Hence formally both should be notified.

As of January 2006, cases of both High and Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza must be notified to the Organisation of Animal Health (OIE). The OIE has traditionally classified HPAI as a "list A" disease, signifying a rapidly spreading animal disease of major economic importance, such as foot and mouth disease or classical swine fever. However there is now no such distinction between diseases that are notifiable to the OIE.

Details of OIE notification mechanisms can be found at
http://www.oie.int/eng/normes/mcode/en_chapitre_1.1.2.htm

Member States are responsible for notifying the OIE and cannot pass on this responsibility to the European Commission.