Greater Mekong Subregion

Battling Bird Flu

Prevention and control are key elements of a joint effort between governments and international organizations in tackling avian influenza and other diseases spread by livestock

By Floyd Whaley, (fwhaley@adb.org)
External Relations Specialist

Since late 2003, health and livestock officials have been on alert across the Mekong region for avian influenza

At the end of a dirt road, surrounded by picturesque rice fields, Somporn Kalika walks quietly among thousands of ducks. The birds flow like schools of fish in the ocean as he moves among them in the late afternoon sunshine.

Somporn has been taking care of ducks in Thailand’s Saphan Buri Province for the last 20 years. The farm where he works, in the province’s Muang District, is a hatchery that sells the ducklings of more than 8,000 birds.

During peak season, the farm produces about 6,000 eggs a day. It is not obvious from the bucolic setting, but the farm sits at the epicenter of the country’s fight against avian flu. Its owner works with the Thai Government to take measures against the spread of the disease.

The ducks at the farm are kept overnight in an open-air barn, where they lay their eggs. In the morning, they are moved outside so their eggs can be collected.

Somporn Kalika has been taking care of ducks in Thailand’s Saphan Buri Province for the last 20 years

Before the bird flu outbreak, the ducks were allowed to roam freely in the area around the farm and swim in a nearby pond. But now, the ducks are confined to a fenced area when let outside and are not allowed to mingle with wild birds.

“The protective measures are simple but, if replicated in livestock farms around Thailand, they can be instrumental in helping curb the outbreak of animal diseases such as avian influenza,” says Tippawon Parakgamawongsa, a veterinary officer at the Provincial Livestock Office in Saphan Buri.

For Somporn, the 39-year-old farmer who is implementing the new procedures, the issue is more about his 9-year-old daughter, Chantima, who lives with him and his wife in their small home near the farm. He is worried that if bird flu takes hold in the area, farms might be closed and he could lose his job. He has no skills or experience other than being a duck farmer.

“These precautions are necessary,” Somporn says. “They are the best chance of saving the farm from disease and staying in business.”

Health and livestock officials have been on alert for avian influenza across the Mekong subregion since late 2003. The virus has been blamed for killing people and causing the slaughter of millions of chickens and ducks, and harming the livelihood of farmers, vendors, and other small businesspeople.

Top

Team Effort to Prevent Outbreaks

International organizations are working with governments, private industries, and people in the subregion to address the issue. Although avian influenza has captured the headlines, efforts are also under way to help prevent the spread of two other major animal diseases: swine fever and foot-andmouth disease.

Together, these diseases drive morbidity and mortality rates of livestock to as high as 70% in the subregion, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study. The diseases kill animals and reduce productivity, threaten the livelihoods of poor farmers, drain public sector resources, restrict trade, and hinder efforts to reduce poverty. Nearly 23 million people are small-scale farmers who depend on livestock for food and as a source of cash income.

The farm where Somporn Kalika works has undertaken protective measures against avian influenza

“The poor in the developing world face a particularly high risk from animal diseases,” says Akmal Siddiq, Senior Project Economist with ADB’s Mekong Department.

The diseases could have even wider economic impact if they begin moving freely across borders with the increasing cross-border trade in livestock among GMS countries. For example, Yunnan Province in the People’s Republic of China has an annual cross-border trade in livestock and livestock products worth about $365 million. In Viet Nam, the figure is $136 million, and Thailand, $32 million.

ADB is working with its partners in the subregion to assist GMS countries develop a subregional cooperation framework to control these animal diseases through a $1 million technical assistance grant.

The grant will address common issues related to the control of the diseases, which are predominantly spread by animal movement across borders, in Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Thailand, and Viet Nam. In the long term, this grant is expected to enhance food security and food safety, while promoting greater trade in livestock and livestock products.

Simple yet effective protective measures are being put into place in Saphan Buri; if replicated around Thailand, they could be instrumental in helping curb the outbreak of animal diseases

“This will be a team effort to address this important problem,” says Subhash Morzaria of the Bangkok office of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In addition to the work of GMS member countries, there will be projects led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the European Union.

Top

Developing a Framework for Cooperation

“The immediate task is to develop a framework for subregional cooperation, upgrade national and subregional laboratories, and build staff capacity in the participating countries to control transboundary animal diseases,” says Mr. Siddiq. “The project represents a major shift toward control rather than the traditional approach of applying mass, blanket vaccination to control outbreaks, which has proven unsustainable and expensive.”

“Introducing policy and technological options that make livestock-dependent poor farmers, especially women, less vulnerable to the devastating effects of animal diseases and support their access to markets for economic growth is a major priority in the GMS,” says Mr. Siddiq.

A veterinarian officer (left) at the Provincial Livestock Office in Saphan Buri helps monitor avian influenza control mechanisms

The grant will bring together international experts and people throughout the GMS who are working with livestock and poultry. These include farmers, traders, veterinarians, community health service providers, nongovernment organizations, border-control units, private pharmaceutical companies, and other stakeholders.

Among the rice fields and poultry farms of Saphan Buri, such practical, grassroots efforts are clearly necessary. On a quiet road running through vast green fields, a truck stuffed with live ducks stops and disgorges the birds into nearby rice paddies. There, the ducks graze on snails and other pests—thus helping the rice farmers clean their fields of vermin. The ducks are later rounded up and put back in the truck.

“The danger of this kind of free-range grazing is that these ducks will mix with wild birds that could carry or spread diseases,” says Mr. Tippawon, the local veterinary official in the area. “If one flock is infected and it moves from field to field, the infection can spread fast.”

Most farmers who use this free-grazing method are too poor to buy the feed necessary for their ducks. To minimize the risk of spreading the disease without putting free-graze duck farmers out of work, Thai officials are not allowing new freegrazing duck farms to start up. They are also restricting current free-grazing duck farmers to their immediate area to limit the possible spread of disease.

Such measures are a good start, but Mr. Tippawon points out that more work is needed and international help is appreciated.

Go back to brochure