Officials of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on
Monday called for support and aid for less-developed countries to
curb the bird flu, which remains a public and animal health threat
and is continuing to spread across the region.
There has been report of daily new outbreaks of bird flu cases
in the affected countries, FAO's Senior Regional Animal Production
and Health Officer Hans Wagner told reporters after a press
conference updating the epidemic situation in the region.
"One of the major reasons for the new outbreaks is the lack of
finances and logistics to contain the outbreaks, to cull the
animals," Wagner said.
He noted that the lack of enough finances and logistics was the
major problem for less-developed countries hit by the epidemic to
carry out culling and keep animals and human from the reservoir for
the disease, which was believed to be wild fowls especially water
fowls.
As long as the suspected animals were not culled and the
potential spots were not cleared, there would be new outbreaks, the
FAO expert said.
He said that the most effective way to contain the disease was
immediately testing and culling animals.
However, "the means which are available are very limited," said
Wagner, comparing efforts of some countries including Thailand and
Vietnam to address the issue as fire fighting.
"You extinguish one fire here and you have fire at other site
which starts burning," he said.
But there is neither specific number nor general idea as to how
many resources and financial support were needed to help those
less-developed countries out of the crisis, he added.
In a bid to provide possible support, FAO has set up an emergent
assistance which allows an immediate fund of 400,000 US dollars for
countries which were in great need of help.
"So far, four countries have applied for the fund and they might
get approval within days and we expect Vietnam is the one that
would get approved today or tomorrow," Wagner told Xinhua.
He said most of the fund would be used to purchase protection
gears for people who cull the birds, improve surveillance of
epidemic and carry out detailed study on specific cases.
Besides Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Pakistan also applied for
the emergent fund, said Wagner.
He also said that FAO had been informed that the Asia
Development Bank also made soft loans accessible to those countries
when dealing with compensation issues.
According to the statistics released by FAO, to date, more
than450 million birds have been culled in Asia excluding China,
some 0.7 percent of the region's total inventory.
The UN agency pointed out that the disease impact was likely to
be most felt by small holders and smaller specialized broiler and
layer operations which lack the bio-security measures put in place
by larger commercial units.
However, poultry producers in the countries hit by the epidemic
were mainly small family-style farmers, who were especially
vulnerable against the disease.
Even in Thailand, which holds the potential to accelerate trends
towards the industrialization of poultry operation among affected
countries, a total of some 2.5 million small chicken farmers were
the major players the kingdom's poultry industry.
(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2004)