ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISION --FOR NEAR EAST AND NORTH AFRICA (ACHNENA)

Animal Health Commision

For Near East And North Africa (Achnena)

The proposal for establishing an Animal Health Commission for the Near East was put forward in the 25th Regional Conference for the Near East in Beirut, Lebanon, 20-24 March 2000 (for documentation…).  The proposal was accepted and unanimously approved by the conference, in which 22 countries of the Region participated and twelve Ministers of Agriculture were in attendance. The support for AHCNENA was reiterated during the 26th Regional Conference for the Near East which was held in Tehran-Iran from  9th to 11th March, 2002. The Animal Health Commission for Near East and North Africa (AHCNENA) will cover animal diseases with the highest economic cost in the Near East Region,which are: Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Rinderpest, Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), Brucellosis and Old World Screwworm (OWS).

The Regional Office for the Near East (RNE) has established a regional web site AHCNENAto compile database on the livestock in the region, including a database on production, trade, primary animal health care, a buffalo newsletter, a camel newsletter, veterinary vaccine production and lists of publications produced regionally by  RNE to cover livestock and a who is who (officials),animal health circulars and CV's for livestock specialists in the region.

Transboundary Animal Diseases

The present globalization process is generating deep changes and a great dynamism in animal health and food safety systems throughout the world and at regional level. The commercial interchange of animals and animal products and the expansion of tourism, increase the vulnerability of the countries in face of the potential introduction of pathogenic agents that may affect animal health, with serious economic, social and commercial consequences.

FAO defines Transboundary Animal Diseases (TAD) as those that have a significant economic, commercial and/or food security importance for a group of countries; which can easily spread to other countries and reach epidemic proportions; requiring for its control and exclusion, co-operation between countries.

FAO in its fight against TADs created the Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES). Important in the livestock sector is the work carried out for the eradication of Rinderpest throughout the world, with a later approach into other TADs which represent a serious sanitary and economic burden for the countries and regions facing them.

The worldwide sanitary emergency caused by the current epizootics of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 (Asiatic variety) originated in Asia at the end of 2003, brought about the creation of a new modality for a more coordinated work, through the Global Framework for the progressive control of Transboundary Diseases (GF-TADs) a joint FAO and OIE initiative endorsed in 2004, favoring alliances between countries and regions, as well as with other agencies linked to animal and human health for the fight against TADs.

The GF-TADs started in the American Continent in 2005, and through regional consultations stated six (6) priority TADs for the region, as follows: Foot and Mouth Disease, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, Classical Swine Fever, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, Screwworm in Livestock and Rabbis

Agriculture :: Livestock :: Regional Role

Millions of rural households in Asia-Pacific countries depend on domesticated animals for food, farm power and income. The region is home to 30 percent of the world's livestock species. Though livestock food products are still not a significant part of the diet in developing Asia-Pacific countries, consumption is growing rapidly. Developing Asian countries now have the world's highest growth rates of production and consumption of food derived from livestock.

Numerous development problems have arisen as a result of this Asian "livestock revolution".

Key areas being addressed by the FAO regional office are:

Economic and environmental sustainability

Improving the livelihoods of producers, especially small-scale livestock producers

Control of transboundary animal diseases

Loss of genetic animal diversity

Food safety standards

Strengthening national veterinary services

The dynamic Asian livestock subsector is growing at a rate between 3.5 and 5 percent per annum – more rapid than the crops sector – driven partly by rising incomes and changing preferences of urban consumers. Livestock producers in peri-urban areas are increasing production and modifying management systems to respond to this rapid rise in demand. Small-scale producers are not generally a part of the rapid rise in intensive animal production. And yet, more than half of the small-scale farmers in Asia rely on livestock as a major source of income and nutrition.

The drive by peri-urban producers to serve urban markets has led to intensive production, with problems of livestock waste, land management and distribution. There is greater awareness of the potential for transmission of disease from animals to humans, particularly with the current bird flu (avian influenza) crisis. Such diseases affecting animals and humans can spread rapidly across the region, creating transboundary animal disease epidemics. There are also concerns about the rising demand for livestock feed, increased need for veterinary services and training, loss of genetic resources and need for extension of cash-making livestock opportunities for small-scale producers.

International concerns for food safety are also of increasing relevance as World Trade Organization (WTO) guidelines come closer to demanding that standards be adopted by trading partners. Questions remain unanswered as to the structural changes that will occur following adoption of food safety standards – addressing the legitimate concerns of consumers – and their impact on small-scale producers. Structural changes are also being led by the growth in urban areas of supermarket vendors of livestock products, intensifying the need to examine opportunities for vertically integrating vulnerable producers.  FAO is responding to these concerns in a number of ways through its activities and programmes in the region.(Google-Internet).

Penulis : Drs.Simon Arnold Julian Jacob