September 29, 2005

 

South-east Asia gets organised for bird flu fight

  

An eFeedLink exclusive report

 

 

Bird flu is still very much the talk of the town during the three-day Livestock Asia 2005 expo in Malaysia, which ends Sep 29.

 

During the international animal production and feed industry show, a regional roundtable discussion was held to discuss issues relating to virulent diseases and developing strategies to further promote intra-ASEAN cooperation.

 

The Asean HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) task force, which was established at the 26th ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry meeting in Yangon on Oct 7 last year, has delegated tasks to specific countries.

 

Indonesia will be in charge of developing policies for vaccination and disease eradication, while Malaysia will handle effective containment measures, the establishment of disease-free zones and emergency preparedness plans.

 

Public awareness and communications will be managed by the Philippines, while Singapore will aid in information sharing.

 

Thailand has the task of disease surveillance and developing diagnostic capabilities.

 

Meanwhile, Vietnam, which has suffered three major bouts of the pathogenic bird flu since 2003, has also set a target to prevent the recurrence of the disease by year-end, and to totally eliminate H5N1 bird flu by 2008 to 2010.

 

Vietnam has also started to re-plan its poultry production, market sectoring, slaughtering and meat production processes in cities and major provinces, slated for completion by 2007. A second stage covering other smaller provinces will be finalised by 2010.

   

In the meantime, Dr Agus Heryanto from the Directorate of General Livestock Services of Indonesia's Department of Agriculture revealed that the country's greatest challenge is how to share bird flu information effectively with the private sector, the industry, and the press.

 

Two countries that have overcome the communication barrier are Singapore and Malaysia. Malaysia's outbreak of H5N1 in its Kelantan state in Aug 2004 had resulted in the immediate import ban of poultry, poultry products and eggs into Singapore.

 

However, a close interaction between the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore's (AVA) and the Malaysian Veterinary Authorities had resulted in measures such as Disease Free Zones and buffer states, which helped to resume the imports of poultry and eggs from Malaysia to Singapore a month later in Sep 2004.

 

This is despite Singapore's strict stand on preventing the pathogenic bird flu from entering the country.

 

"All poultry farms will be stamped out if we detect it in one local farm. This is our policy and it's very drastic," explained Dr Ng Fook Kheong, AVA's head of the Animal & Plant Health Laboratories Division.

 

In a separate talk, International Hatchery Practice magazine editor Nigel Horrox pointed out that this same need for open communication between the poultry industry players and the media.

 

"The poultry industry needs to be more open in what it does in poultry production," Horrox said, pointing out that its secrecy with the media has not helped the bird flu media coverage.

 

What should also be of concern now to the poultry industry are low pathogenic forms of bird flu, such as the H9N2, said Professor Kim Sun-Joong of Han Poong Industry, as the H9N2 virus will invade poultry's internal organs and cause losses in poultry production.

 

He also predicts that this bird flu virus can lead to a human pandemic through genetic re-assortment.

 

Since 1966, Korea has witnessed H9N2 outbreaks among poultry on an increasing frequency and with more widespread effect.

 

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