September 17, 2012
It is important for a country like India to develop the capacity to
investigate and control bird flu and other animal diseases, Dr. Weaver,
Chief Technical Advisor, Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal
Diseases, Food and Agriculture Organisation, tells T. Nandakumar.
Though India has a strong diagnostic system and response plan for bird
flu, it needs to improve detection of the disease and address the
problem of under-reporting of cases, according to John Weaver, Chief
Technical Advisor, Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases,
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
Dr. Weaver, who headed an FAO delegation to a two-day surveillance
training programme on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) here
recently, told The Hindu that it was important for a country like
India to develop the capacity to investigate and control bird flu and
other animal diseases.
The workshop, which concluded on Wednesday, focussed on detection and
monitoring of the disease. Veterinarians from Kerala, Tamil Nadu,
Puducherry, and Lakshadweep were exposed to surveillance methods, data
capture and epidemiology of the disease to understand its behaviour,
biology and characteristics.
Risk factors
“By doing that, you identify the risk factors for diseases, why some
animals and populations are infected and some are not. By understanding
that, you are better able to target susceptible groups,” Dr. Weaver
said.
“India has a problem with under-reporting of bird flu cases. It means
the infection is continuing to fulminate and spread. Detection and
identification of the reservoirs of infection is crucial. It could be in
migratory birds, ducks, or markets.”
Highlighting the need to understand the risk factors, he said, “Some
States like Tamil Nadu have a big commercial poultry sector but in north
India, the commercial sector is smaller; there you have lots of
backyard chickens running around. So, the risk factors are different
because the management systems are different”.
India, he said, had a strong central response plan for bird flu, a
strong diagnostic system with very good laboratories, and a
decontamination system for infected areas.
“What does not work so well here is detection of the disease, particularly in the backyard sector.”
He went on to explain, “Chickens commonly get sick. People often do not
report sick chickens because they do not see the need to. This is
confounded by the fact that if you report, the government’s response is
to cull chickens. This proves to be a disincentive to report.”
Incentive to report
Dr. Weaver said the under-reporting of cases could be tackled by
addressing the issue of compensation and creating community awareness
for reporting the disease. It was important to develop an incentive to
report, he added.
“With a history of infection recently in northeast India, both
cross-border and inter-State movement of poultry poses a risk. States
like Kerala need to monitor poultry movement across State borders and
keep tabs on the standard of poultry production in other States,” he
said. “Migratory birds are certainly the cause of infection across long
distances but once the infection is introduced into an area, it is
spread mainly by poultry.”
Advocating a multi-sectoral approach to disease control, he proposed a
system involving the Union government, State governments, district
administration, health sector officials, chambers of commerce and
industry, local bodies and community groups.
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