Avian Flu: Potential for Cooperation, Tensions

 

Joint cooperation, stemming from the realisation that avian flu does not recognise borders, would make measures to combat it more effective in Laos’ Khammuan province and in neighbouring Nakhon Phanom province just across the border in Thailand.

Poultry farmers in Nakhon Phanom province suffered heavy losses following an outbreak of the avian influenza virus in July. Officials are still trying to pinpoint possible sources of the outbreak, and are working with the Lao counterparts to prevent further occurrences of the disease.

“To ensure that bird flu does not return and to prevent an outbreak in neighbouring Khammoun province of Laos, we are recommending that officials from both provinces boost cooperation and set up joint surveillance measures,” said Nakhon Phanom’s vice governor, Theeradej Vongraj, recently.

He explained in a report that he envisaged the setting up of a shared information network between the two provinces. He would also like to establish a disease control centre to monitor avian influenza along the border. The network would be managed jointly by both provinces.

His vision is to put into place a system of preparedness and carry out regular testing. Theeradej plans to launch a publicity campaign in each province to ensure that everyone is on the alert. “It is necessary to inspect the movement of poultry along the border, which means carrying out checks on vehicles and goods,” he said.

Theeradej also aims to keep the area completely disease free, to ensure that neither poultry nor humans die as a result of the disease.

He believes that the only way to achieve this is through the strict regulation of the movement of both live poultry and chicken meat destined for markets.

“The plan should include the regular exchange of information and joint seminars between the sectors involved in both provinces. This would go a long way to addressing possible future problems,” he commented.

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

An outbreak of avian influenza in July 2006 at Ban Krang in Thailand’s Nakhon Phanom province, which shares a Mekong River border with Khammuan province in Laos, has sparked accusations of blame on both sides.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu infected chicken farms in Ban Krang in Muang district. The epidemic forced authorities to slaughter nearly 400,000 poultry. Total losses are estimated to be about 1.4 million dollars used to compensate farmers who lost their poultry.

Two state chicken farms in Vientiane were also infected with bird flu in July.

There is suspicion as to how bird flu surfaced in the village as Nakhon Phanom has never experienced bird flu before, and neighbouring provinces were free of the disease at the time.

There are two possible theories as to how the virus spread. The first one posits that wild birds flew in from other areas, carrying the virus with them. The second argues that transport routes carried the virus in contaminated cages used to transport eggs and chickens.

 

According to Nakhon Phanom vice governor Theeradej, it is likely that a wild bird was the carrier as there are rows of trees surrounding the farms that serve as a food source.

As Nakhon Phanom shares a river border with Laos, some people suspect that the outbreak in Ban Krang may have originated in Laos – and this has triggered reactions from the Lao side.

However, Vientiane is about 400 kilometres from Ban Krang. Poultry products are not transported between Nakhon Phanom and Vientiane, as imports from any source have been banned since 2004 when bird flu first occurred in Laos, official say.

“Based on the information we have, it is difficult to say where the virus came from,” said Theeradej. “We have been unable to determine the source of bird flu in Ban Krang as the virus is a new strain that has never been identified in Thailand before. “All we can say is that it is similar to a strain of bird flu that recently occurred in the south of China. We are trying to find out more and university technicians in Thailand are analysing it,” he added.

THEORIES ABOUND

A theory exists which suggests that traders illegally carried eggs or chickens to Khammuan province in Laos, and then returned to Nakhon Phanom province with infected containers or cages.

One chicken farmer in Ban Krang said that most of her products were shipped to neighbouring provinces, but she was not sure whether eggs from her farm went to Khammuan province.

“It is impossible that the outbreak in Ban Krang was caused by cages used to contain contaminated poultry products from Laos as there was no outbreak of bird flu in Khammuan province at the time. There was certainly no bird flu in this village,” said village chief Chantakhit Maneepakhon, who heads Ban Xiengvan Tha in Nongbok district across the river from Thailand.

He admitted that there was some illegal trading of poultry from Nakhon Phanom province. However, this trade was very small as his village had a chicken farm that villages supplied the demands of local. Furthermore, everyone in the village was well aware of the government ban on poultry imports. (END/VP/VT/IM/JS/291206)

(*Viengsavanh Phengphachan of the ‘Vientiane Times’ wrote this story under the Imaging Our Mekong Programme 2006-07, a media fellowship programme coordinated by IPS Asia-Pacific and Probe Media Foundation Inc, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation.)