Periodic Performance Problems with High I/O Wait When ClamAV Processes Run

Issue

• Noticing periods of significant performance degradation with spikes in I/O wait time.
• ClamAV process startup errors correspond to I/O wait spikes:

freshclam[]: ClamAV update process started at Mon Jan 14 20:00:01 2013
freshclam[]: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
freshclam[]: Local version: 0.97.3 Recommended version: 0.97.6
freshclam[]: DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/support/faq
freshclam[]: main.cvd is up to date (version: 54, sigs: 1044387, f-level: 60, builder: sven)
freshclam[]: Downloading daily-16482.cdiff [100%]
freshclam[]: Downloading daily-16483.cdiff [100%]
freshclam[]: Downloading daily-16484.cdiff [100%]
freshclam[]: Downloading daily-16485.cdiff [100%]
freshclam[]: Downloading daily-16486.cdiff [100%]
freshclam[]: Downloading daily-16487.cdiff [100%]
freshclam[]: Downloading daily-16488.cdiff [100%]
freshclam[]: daily.cld updated (version: 16488, sigs: 545963, f-level: 63, builder: guitar)
freshclam[]: bytecode.cld is up to date (version: 210, sigs: 39, f-level: 63, builder: neo)
freshclam[]: Database updated (1590389 signatures) from db.us.clamav.net (IP: 64.6.100.177)
freshclam[]: NotifyClamd: Can't find or parse configuration file /etc/clamd.conf
kernel: INFO: task gzip:14516 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
[...]
kernel: INFO: task gzip:14516 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
[...]

• Is ClamAV provided and supported by redhat ?