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Others pointed out that inadequate surveillance of animals, and poor coordination between human and animal public health authorities, was probably a large part of the reason for the lack of understanding about the emergence of the virus, and the slow response to the potential threat in Mexico (see: Anon, 2009; Butler, 2009 and Neumann et al, 2009) The politics of naming and blaming dominated the d. [...] Estimates of huge potential mortalities made at the time of his appointment provoked a major furore among the technical agencies, but it certainly resulted in the raising of the profile of the issue among a wider constituency, moving the debate from concerns at the ‘periphery’ right to the centre of the global system.17 This was accelerated by the arrival of H5N1 in Europe and human cases in Turke. [...] US$1.8 billion was pledged, and the main technical agencies – the WHO, the FAO and the OIE – came up with a series of plans and strategies prepared for the conference.22 Whilst the issue had been live before, it was at this point that the ambitions and activities of the international response significantly scaled up. [...] Extending the work of Keeley and Scoones (2003), understanding the underlying politics of policy processes involves asking a series of interrelated questions: **First, what are the narratives – the storylines – which define the way the disease problem is understood and the way the response has unfolded? In other words, how are both problems and solutions framed, and through what mechanisms? **Seco. [...] Perceptions of the seriousness of the risk, and so the degree of urgency of the response, may be influenced by the array of other risks and hazards that people and politicians must deal with.