The epidemic of avian flu can now spread on a global scale.

an eventual bird flu epidemic.

We are assuming that the shock from a flu epidemic would be even bigger than from SARS.

Just as we conquered the SARS epidemic in 2003, we will surely conquer bird flu as well,

There has been a level of complacency that has helped the epidemic spread.

We think that the condition of veterinary infrastructure in eastern Turkey led to this delay on the information. To manage avian flu in animals, time is a crucial point because if a country is in a position to have a rapid response within two days, the cost of the management is very low, compared with a delay of three or four days. The spread of the disease is exponential, which is why time is crucial.