January 21, 2005

 

 

Southeast Asia needs to step up bird flu measures

 

Southeast Asian governments will have a tough time controlling bird flu unless efforts are stepped up to control smuggling and poultry movement from backyard farms, a livestock expert said on Thursday.

 

With the death of an 18-year-old girl and concerns about possible human-to-human transmission of the virus in Vietnam, Abdul Rahman, executive consultant to the Federation of Livestock Farmers' Associations of Malaysia, said there was an urgent need for extra vigilance.

 

"I expect the problem in Southeast Asia to get worse before it gets better," Rahman told Reuters. "Governments are working hard, but because it's the winter season here, the task will be much more difficult."

 

With the latest death, the Asian bird flu toll risen to 38 -- 26 in Vietnam and 12 in Thailand. Millions of birds have been slaughtered to control the spread of the virus.

 

And Thailand, the world's fourth biggest chicken exporter before bird flu struck last year, confirmed earlier this week the first case of the virus in two months.

 

"Vietnam has a lot of backyard farms which are extremely difficult to regulate. The infrastructure is not well-organised and those farmers, who are living hand-to-mouth, are not going to understand the scientific nature of the problem," Rahman said.

 

ILLEGAL TRADE

 

Vietnam has imposed a ban on imports of poultry and poultry products from neighbouring countries to fight the spread but Rahman said most countries in this region were still reeling under the problem because of smuggling.

 

"Vietnam has such a big border trade with all these countries including China. It's difficult to say which country is passing on the virus to others," he added.

 

But China, the world's second largest poultry producer, said on Wednesday that its poultry was safe. Last year, Beijing controlled outbreaks through vaccination, slaughtering and surveillance.

 

Rahman said countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, which are currently free of the bird flu virus after a long struggle, should not sit idle as the problem was far from being over. Malaysia, he reveals, has a net flow of smuggled chickens.

 

Malaysia produces about 1.1 million live birds a day. The Southeast Asian nation's per-capita chicken consumption of about 30 kg per person per year is among the world's highest.

 

EU animal health experts earlier this month extended a ban on poultry imports from eight Asian nations until the end of September due to uncertainty over the virus. The ban was due to expire on March 31 and had applied to 10 countries in Asia.

 

Japan and South Korea, which are now seen as free of the disease, were removed from the list.

 

"The problem is that people are not very transparent about this," Rahman said. "That could make the task much more easier. Otherwise, trade is surely going to suffer for a longer period."