FEED Business Worldwide - July 2012

 

  

by Eric J. BROOKS

 

 

Held at Singapore's Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel on June 12th and 13th and organised by Terrapinn, the World Animal Health Congress  Asia 2012 covered all facets of the world livestock industry's animal health, biosafety and food safety issues. Going from general overviews to specific, individual issues, the conference brought together leading health and biosecurity professionals from industry and various government agencies.

 

The conference began with a panelists discussing how to leverage technical expertise to optimize revenue growth in Asia's fast growing markets. Ernst Boettcher, general manager of Bayer Animal Health Thailand, Somu Kumar Ambat, director for the international food industry at Elanco Singapore, KV Balasubramamniam,

managing director of Indian Immunologicals Limited, Asim Banerjee, managing director of Vetoquinol India had a most interesting exchange on this topic.

 

According to Indian Immunological's Balasubramamniam, many Asian livestock health issues are caused by,"an emphasis is on curative rather than diagnostics or prevention." While, "pharmaceuticals are playing an increasing role in getting better livestock and aquaculture survival rates and better productivity rates," panelist made clear that the solution's roll-out mattered as much as the technology.

 

But even so, these new solutions will not be effective without a supportive infrastructure and livestock management practices. According to Ambat, "Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina have been able to control FMD only by vaccination, not by disposal like other countries. That is because they properly survey outbreaks and have created common vaccines for their [cross-border] regions."

 

By comparison, in Asia, FMD regularly spreads like wildfire and policymakers find it difficult to keep under control.  Ambat stated that in India, ""There is too much animal movement and there is no regulation or tracing of this movement.  Noting that feed crop quality must also play a role, he concluded that, "The pathway to success will involve collaboration, choice and technology"

 

Bayer's Boettcher noted that with exporters such as Thailand exporting much of their fish and poultry, they are forced to conform to EU livestock and food safety laws. While the 2006 AGP ban's is well-known for having stimulated the export of antibiotic-free Thai chicken, Boettcher made clear that even EU consumer preferences are influencing the way Asian livestock are being raised.

 

For example, "Saha farms is stepping up efforts to produce GMO-free chicken not because it is an issue in Thailand but because it is an issue in Europe." He concluded that, "I see a day that when you buy a product at a supermarket in Europe, you will be able to trace it to a specific farm in Thailand."

 

The latter part of the conference produced deeply technical seminars that dealt with the emerging health issues in specific protein lines, be they biosecurity measures used to prevent influenza viruses from infecting poultry meat, vaccination of Asian farmed fish, or superior methods of delivering vaccines and supplements to livestock at risk.

 

Not only were the latest technologies compared but their application in different environments was too. For example, the challenge of controlling H5N1 outbreaks in Thailand and Indonesia could be compared, in everything from the technical solution to the infrastructure features unique to each country.

 

The conference managed to deal with general livestock health issues while drilling down to the smallest technical details. Featuring industry leaders, government policymakers from throughout Asia and even representatives from the World Animal Health Organisation, this year's World Animal Health Congress was meaningful and eye opening. I look forward to attending next year's edition of this event.