Reporter

THE United Nation’s food agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is urging “absolute transparency about disease outbreaks” among states and vigilance among farmers if bird-flu control campaigns are to succeed.          

FAO made the call after it expressed concern about new cases of avian influenza (AI) detected in China, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.             

The UN agency, however, said the number of outbreaks in the first weeks of 2007 has been significantly lower than the epidemic waves of last year.          

“Recent outbreaks are following a seasonal pattern and do not come as a great surprise. But we need to remain on the alert as the recent outbreaks show. It is crucial that countries themselves step up their surveillance, detection and rapid response measures,” said Juan Lubroth, senior officer of the FAO Animal Health Service.

FAO noted that it seemed that the intercontinental spread of the H5N1 virus by wild birds migrating from Asia to Europe and Africa had not taken place during this autumn/winter season at the same level as it had in 2005.           

The UN agency, however, said poultry trade and the transport of live birds could still spread the virus.         

“Cold weather enhances virus survival, but farming systems and wild bird migration as well as the movement of animals during important holiday seasons also play a role,” noted FAO.             

The UN agency said absolute transparency about disease outbreaks, involving farmers directly in surveillance and reporting activities and establishing compensation schemes are key to making bird-flu control campaigns successful.   

“Only immediate reporting of any suspected bird-flu outbreak makes possible rapid intervention by farmers and veterinarians,” said Lubroth. “Unfortunately, many outbreaks remain unreported. National and international bodies are often not in a position to immediately verify rumors or reports about unconfirmed outbreaks.”            

FAO warned that the banning of backyard poultry or duck raising could lead to illegal poultry production. “Implementing and controlling these bans will be very difficult to achieve. For economic reasons farmers will tend to hide their animals  and will not participate in vaccination or movement controls,” said the FAO official.          

Instead of banning production, FAO said, farmers should be encouraged to participate in virus control and vaccination campaigns.    

In view of the widespread virus distribution in Indonesia, FAO has suggested that in addition to ongoing control measures, day-old chicks should be vaccinated before they leave their hatcheries and distributed, as well as blanket vaccination in heavily infected districts.

THE Philippines has once again imposed a temporary ban on poultry products coming from Japan following the Japanese government’s admission of the presence of the dreaded avian influenza (AI) virus in their country.

THE United Nation’s food agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is urging “absolute transparency about disease outbreaks” among states and vigilance among farmers if bird-flu control campaigns are to succeed.

METRO Rail Transit-7 (MRT-7) project proponent, Universal LRT Corp., expects a number of interested investors to purchase bid documents from the transportation department. It doubts, however, that these firms will be able to submit a proposal deemed most advantageous to the government such as theirs.

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