October 3, 2005

ASEAN to donate US$2 million against bird flu
 

ASEAN said it would donate $2 million for a regional fund to curb bird flu and other animal diseases, during the recent regional bird flu meeting in the Philippines. It also endorsed an action plan by a Malaysian-led task force to eradicate bird flu from 2006 to 2008.

Thailand alone has contributed US$300,000 to the fund.

Malaysian task force head Aziz Mangkat said vital parts of the action plan included disaster surveillance, containment measures, coordination in disease eradication, and vaccination policies and diagnosis.

The task force would also closely cooperate with UN bodies such as the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to fight the disease.

Meanwhile, ASEAN would improve information sharing among members and public awareness campaigns. Member countries would also step up their emergency preparedness against bird flu.

The FAO warned that a carryover into this year of trade bans for bird flu-hit countries in Asia, was expected to limit Asian poultry exports to less than 1 million tonnes, or about 12 percent of shipments worldwide.

This figure was significantly lower than the 1.8 million tonnes worth US$2.5 billion exported by Asia in 2003.

Meanwhile, some affected countries including Thailand have sharply shifted their poultry exports to more value-added cooked products due to bans on frozen products.

Many Asian broiler industries have also decided to speed up the process of moving to vertical integration to minimise the impact of animal diseases, in light of the recent bird flu outbreaks.

While the ASEAN fund was a regional initiative, officials said they also expected a portion of the US$102 million bird flu fund targeted by the UN.