WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2008 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is seeking public comments on a draft quantitative food safety risk assessment for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus from consumption of poultry products, shell eggs and egg products. The risk assessment was done in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services' Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

The risk assessment was designed to evaluate the relative effectiveness of strategies to reduce or prevent exposure to HPAI virus from consumption of poultry meat, shell eggs and egg products. It may also be used to target risk communication messages, identify and prioritize research needs, and provide a framework for coordinating efforts with stakeholders.

The risk assessment has been externally peer reviewed, consistent with the requirements in the Office of Management and Budget's "Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review." It has also been reviewed by various government agencies. FSIS intends to review and evaluate all public comments and make modifications to the assessment as appropriate.

The risk assessment is available on FSIS' Web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Science/Risk_Assessments/index.asp. For further details on the risk assessment, please contact Neal J. Golden, Office of Public Health Science, FSIS, by phone at (202) 690-6419 or by e-mail at Neal.Golden@fsis.usda.gov.

Comments on the risk assessment must be received by Jan. 31, 2009. Comments can be sent to Docket Clerk, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Room 2534 South Agriculture Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, D.C. 20250; e-mailed to fsis.regulationscomments@fsis.usda.gov or submitted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. All submissions received by mail or electronic mail must reference the Food Safety and Inspection Service and include the docket number FSIS-2007-0001.

In 430 B.C., a new and deadly disease — its cause remains a mystery — swept into Athens. The walled Greek city-state was teeming with citizens, soldiers and refugees of the war then raging between Athens and Sparta. As streets filled with corpses, social order broke down. Over the next three years, the illness returned twice and Athens lost a third of its population. It lost the war too. The Plague of Athens marked the beginning of the end of the Golden Age of Greece.

The Plague of Athens is one of 10 historically notable outbreaks described in an article in The Lancet Infectious Diseases by authors from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The phenomenon of widespread, socially disruptive disease outbreaks has a long history prior to HIV/AIDS, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H5N1 avian influenza and other emerging diseases of the modern era, note the authors.

"There appear to be common determinants of disease emergence that transcend time, place and human progress," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., one of the study authors. For example, international trade and troop movement during wartime played a role in both the emergence of the Plague of Athens as well as in the spread of influenza during the pandemic of 1918-19. Other factors underlying many instances of emergent diseases are poverty, lack of political will, and changes in climate, ecosystems and land use, the authors contend. "A better understanding of these determinants is essential for our preparedness for the next emerging or re-emerging disease that will inevitably confront us," says Dr. Fauci.