1. In respect to rinderpest
· The threat of rinderpest to world food security should be drawn to the attention of the World Food Summit and that this body be requested to set global rinderpest eradication as one of its goals:
- The World Food Summit Plan of Action, states:
"Seek to ensure effective prevention and progressive control of plant and animal pests and diseases, including especially those which are of transboundary nature, such as rinderpest, cattle tick, foot-and-mouth disease and desert locust, where outbreaks can cause major food shortages, destabilise markets and trigger trade measures; and promote concurrently, regional collaboration in plant pests and animal diseases control and widespread development and use of integrated pest management practices."
· The blueprint for global eradication of rinderpest by 2010 be adopted and drawn to the attention of all FAO member countries:
- Submitted to all Chief Veterinary Officers of Member States in Africa, South Asia, West Asia and Central Asia.- GREP activities have had a high profile coverage in the Press (radio and newspapers) particularly in Africa.
· An outbreak of rinderpest outside the endemic areas identified in July 1996 is to be considered an international emergency:
- One week after the World Food Summit (Nov. 25, 1996), Tanzanian Minister of Agriculture, having been informed by Kenya of (at the time) suspected rinderpest in Nairobi National Park, appealed to the Director-General, FAO, for assistance for preventive action, and notified the local EC Delegation and the OAU/IBAR. Two days later the rinderpest diagnosis was confirmed by the FAO Regional Reference Laboratory at Muguga and the Kenyan CVO notified the OIE).- FAO-EMPRES and OAU/IBAR convened an emergency meeting during the first week of December and set up joint field investigations by the Kenyan and Tanzanian veterinary and wildlife teams. The conclusion was that the risk for rinderpest spread to Tanzania was high.
- Emergency action was taken by each country based on unprecedented emergency subventions by their own national treasuries. These were supplemented by emergency financial and technical support by FAO, EU and UNDP with the technical co-ordination by the OAU/IBAR.
- On 9 February 1997, FAO appealed for concerted national and international action to prevent the outbreak from evolving into a catastrophe, particularly as there was a period the drought.
- Surveillance and control activities have been sustained constantly since November. All available evidence suggests that the spread of disease has been checked. Credit is due to the veterinary authorities in Kenya and Tanzania plus the collaboration of OAU/IBAR, PARC project financed by the EU.
· EMPRES should endeavour as a matter of urgency to have appropriate regional rinderpest co-ordination unit(s) established to cover west and Central Asia.
- For Africa there has been a re-affirmation of commitment to rinderpest eradication by the national veterinary services, the principal donor to PARC and the regional organisation responsible for GREP co-ordination in Africa, i.e. OAU/IBAR. Nevertheless, there are still some serious deficiencies in the financial arrangements which are essential to ensure sustained action for irreversible eradication.- West and central Africa as well as Egypt have recorded no cases of rinderpest for up to 10 years. Egypt and several west African countries have now declared their provisional freedom from rinderpest. However, rinderpest persists in parts of Eastern Africa. Recently, the disease has occurred in southern Kenya whence it has extended into the contiguous parts of northern Tanzania.
- In Asia, India has made a remarkable achievement. For the first time the whole of India has been without rinderpest for more that one year. The Northern States were declared to the OIE as provisionally free from rinderpest in 1995 and there has been no rinderpest outbreak recorded in the whole of India since September 1995. Similarly there has been no rinderpest in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. They all fulfil the condition for entering the OIE Pathway. However, rinderpest continues to be widespread in Pakistan with extensions into Afghanistan. A rinderpest control programme in Pakistan and Afghanistan is most urgently needed. National Projects are either in place or about to start in Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. The SAREC-support regional project is also expected to become operational at the beginning of 1998.
· FAO should liaise with OIE to establish verification procedures for regional and global rinderpest freedom.
- The annual FAO/OIE/WHO Co-ordination meeting has accepted this recommendation. The OIE FMD and Other Epizootics Commission has requested FAO to provide recommendations; the details are to be debated by the present meeting of the EMPRES-Livestock Expert Consultation.
2. In respect to PPR
· It would be inappropriate to initiate PPR eradication programmes at present,
· EMPRES should urgently facilitate the validation and licensing of PPR vaccine, and
· EMPRES should facilitate studies to determine the current epidemiological situation for PPR and to develop appropriate control and eradication strategies for future use.
- Collaboration with the CIRAD-EMVT has resulted in the transfer of the PPR seed vaccine virus to PANVAC for further dissemination to vaccine producers in Africa. Also a technology collaboration arrangement has been agreed between CIRAD-EMVT and PANVAC.
3. In respect to FMD
· EMPRES should not seek to develop its own programme for the global eradication of FMD,
· EMPRES should wherever possible and within the constraints of its available resources respond to requests to promote and assist national and regional FMD control and eradication programmes,
· EMPRES should play a catalytic role in the provision of early reaction support when outbreaks of FMD occur in strategically important regions. Central Asia is seen as one such region, and
· EMPRES should express its concern to OIE about the slow progress being made in the formulation of an epidemiologically sound pathway for declaration of freedom from FMD disease and infection.
- Collaboration with the OIE and IAEA for initiating co-ordinated FMD control in South-East Asia is underway. A national FMD project for the Philippines with financing by Australia has been set up. A technical assessment mission has just completed a study of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the outcome of which is to be discussed at the regional workshop in Hanoi at the end of July.- A similar study has just been concluded for Kenya and Uganda. This study has been undertaken with the collaboration of OAU/IBAR and financial assistance by the UK Department of International Co-operation.
4. In respect to CBPP
· EMPRES should provide assistance in making validated vaccine seed stocks for CBPP vaccine available to countries,
· EMPRES should develop a control and eradication policy for newly infected areas,
· EMPRES should co-ordinate and facilitate the establishment of the two sanitary cordons (eastern and western zones) in Africa,
· EMPRES should catalyse research into defined aspects of the pathogenesis, immunity and mechanisms of resistance to CBPP, diagnosis; microbiology; vaccines and the role of chemotherapy,
· Monovalent CBPP vaccines should be used in west Africa,
· EMPRES should pursue the strategies for CBPP control and eradication for eastern and southern Africa outlined in its concept paper of November 1995 on this subject, and
· EMPRES should collaborate with OAU/IBAR to develop CBPP control and eradication strategies for west and central Africa and the Horn of Africa.
- The T1-SR vaccine seed strain has been withdrawn and replaced by the T1/44 strain jointly produced and certified by CIRAD-EMVT and PANVAC. The Joint FAO/IAEA Division is proceeding with the launching of the standardised ELISA test. EMPRES is collaborating with the OAU/IBAR, SADC and the EC in developing a CBPP control strategy for southern and eastern Africa. The situation of CBPP in southern Africa has deteriorated with the recent invasion of Zambia, the continuing unchecked disease status in Angola and the lack of sustained donor support for national CBPP control in Tanzania
5. In respect to Rift Valley fever
· EMPRES should promote research into ecological factors that could provide a predictive capacity for epidemics of diseases such as RVF as well as other insect borne livestock diseases capable of causing widespread epidemics, and
· EMPRES should identify appropriate vaccines for RVF, probably inactivated, and promote investigations into the long term storage of antigens as a vaccine bank. Alternatively EMPRES should identify vaccine manufacturers of high quality RVF vaccine and explore the possibility of contractual arrangements with them for guaranteed supply of vaccines in an emergency.
- A ground study on the inter-epidemic status is underway in west Africa, co-ordinated by the LNERV Laboratory, Dakar. A suspicion of Rift Valley fever in India was investigated and shown to be false. No steps have been taken for establishing any vaccine bank.
6. In respect to EMPRES early warning and early reaction systems
· EMPRES should promote the adoption of the principles of emergency preparedness through early warning and early reaction and establish without delay the proposed regional EMPRES units; the proposed Global Early Warning System element should be established rapidly with special attention being paid to rinderpest.
- Efforts are under way to develop the transboundary disease information system.- Also a decision support software is under development for harmonisation of early warning-reaction systems (EWRS).
- Rinderpest surveillance in Tropical Africa is to be conducted through the an EU-funded PARC Epidemiology project with the OAU/IBAR.
- In 29 countries of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa, an IFAD funded project (RADISCON) is setting up a surveillance network for epidemic disease for which the initial focus will be on rinderpest, FMD, PPR and brucellosis. A similar project is under development for the SADC countries.
- The Joint FAO/IAEA Division is co-ordinating rinderpest sero-surveillance in the Middle East.
- A multi-media software has been produced and distributed to Member Countries explaining the EMPRES Programme. CVOs have been invited to nominate National EMPRES Liaison Officers. E-mail connection is being established for about 40 countries in Africa and the Middle East.
- A quarterly EMPRES bulletin has been launched.
- EMPRES-Livestock is on the 'Web' and an EMPRES-Livestock electronic discussion Group is being launched this week.
- An example of response to diseases requiring tactical early reaction attention is the work on African swine fever in Mozambique, Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire. The latest has been Côte d'Ivoire which became infected in April/May 1996. Here a determined early response by the Ivorian authorities, and the support through EMPRES and the TCP mechanism of FAO, has permitted the disease to be brought under control, albeit following the sacrifice of about 25% of the pig population of Côte d'Ivoire. Two regional workshops on ASF covering disease recognition, diagnosis, control strategies and concepts of emergency preparedness have been conducted. Classical swine fever (hog cholera) in Haiti is another example which has demanded similar action.
- FAO management has accepted the recommendation for strengthening the early warning aspect of EMPRES-Livestock. Accordingly, a new post at P3 is to be established from January 1998. Management has considered the P3 level to be more appropriate than the P5 level recommended by the Expert Consultation. Three reasons justify this decision: finance, a desire to attract a person early in their career evolution and the need to maintain the early warning element of EMPRES as highly interactive with external centres of excellence in terms of both collaborative action and attraction of visiting scientists. It is also hoped to strengthen this aspect with two Associate (Junior) Professional Officers at HQ and two more in the Regional Offices. So far, only the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile, has an animal health officer with primary responsibility for EMPRES activities.
8. Related Developments
- Two lecture presentations were delivered to the Permanent Representatives to FAO on the EMPRES Programme.
- The Partnership programme for Visiting Scientists.
- Extension of The Partnership programme to include Young Scientists.
- The Special Programme for Food Security emphasises short-cycle livestock.
- The Special Programme for Food Security is developing country-based, nationally-owned programmes.
