The high number of reported bird flu cases in Egypt does not bode well, as the government is apparently falling short in efforts to contain the crisis. Egypt has the highest number of cases of the most infectious strain of bird flu, H5N1, despite being in the midst of its third attempt in nine years to control the disease.

According to experts and documents reviewed by Al-Monitor, previous efforts were undermined by administrative incompetence and a lack of political will, and the government faces enormous challenges if it is to contain the virus this time around. The Animal Health and Livelihood Sustainability Strategy of 2010, the government’s first attempt to contain the virus in 2006 through mass culling, vaccinations and compensation for farmers, suffered from poor management, a lack of transparency, widespread conflicts of interest among “core institutions” and a suspected lack of effective hygienic measures practiced by control teams.

Industry experts say many of the recommendations of the 2010 report, written in collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and approved by the government, were never implemented. Now the government is awaiting a final report on the problem from a broader spectrum of international organizations whose representatives gathered in Egypt in March: the FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF and experts from Naval Medical Research Unit Three.

The WHO confirmed that from January to March 31 of this year, Egypt recorded 119 confirmed cases of H5N1, including 30 deaths. China ranks a distant second, with four cases and one death. Indonesia, which at the beginning of the year was neck-and-neck with Egypt in total cases since 2003, has added just two new cases, for a total of 199. Egypt's now stand at 329.