Bird Flu Boosts Biosecurity in Thai Poultry Industry

A recent trip to a duck farm near Bangkok left visitors wondering what a duck actually looks like. That's because the farm's closed breeding environment and strict biosecurity measures mean that absolutely no one from outside are allowed to see the birds in the flesh, even for some 20 journalists who came all the way from six different countries here to Chachoengsao province.

Vehicles from outside are not allowed to enter the farm. Visitors have to walk through the gate, which is usually closed when the farm is open. If the closed iron-fence gate still does not remind visitors of the bird flu threat, then the disinfection room right beside it will. This room is about five metres long, and disinfectant is sprayed all over. All the journalists tried their best to rush through the disinfection channel, yet without a single exception everybody's clothes got wet. The farm owner was welcoming us just as we emerged from the disinfection room, nodding his head and smiling humbly. But his hospitality did not mean that we could enter the duck houses -- instead, we were led to the meeting room for a briefing.

We learnt that there used to be more than 1,200 poultry farms in this province before outbreaks of bird flu re-emerged in South-east Asia at the end of 2003. Only a third of these farms remain now. The ones that went bankrupt were usually small family farms that relied on regular purchases by large-scale poultry processing enterprises. But due to concerns about avian flu and its impact on their business, many large enterprises set up their own farms. Much of the remaining poultry purchases also went to farms with strict biosecurity measures. As a result, small farms had to find out other ways to make a living.

After the briefing, the duck farm owner led all the journalists in front of three "staff only" disinfection rooms leading to the duck houses. Pointing to the illustrations on the wall, the owner explained the procedures that his staff must go through before handling the birds: Take all clothes off, have disinfectant sprayed all over one's body, take a shower, and in the end, put on white work clothes and boots. This procedure is a must for all staff before entering the duck house, the farm owner emphasised.

Afterwards, all the journalists were informed that photo opportunities would come with rather strict conditions. A white line drawn on the ground kept the reporters 50 metres away from the duck houses. What is one crossed the line? I tried just one small step and the farm owner cautioned me with a gentle smile. What the journalists were able to record with their cameras were only duck houses in alignment rather than lively and lovely birds. Such measures were meant to prevent the ducks from contacts with wild birds, the farm owner explained. Not only wild birds, we thought.

We sympathised with the ducks inside -- they could not run around under the blue skies or waddle about in clear water. Instead, each of them has to share a one square-metre room with five others for what amounts to a sentence of life imprisonment. These poor little inmates are not only deprived of the chance of exercising in the open air during their entire lives, but are also subject to all kinds of spontaneous check-ups, each of which may lead to early execution. Even more unfortunate for the inmates, the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) has entrusted its officials with the power to execute any of them in order to stamp out any possible corruption at the farm.

We met a DLD official who happened to be on an inspection tour at the duck farm. He was chatting with the farm staff, and his smiling and nodding suggested that he was apparently a frequent visitor. This DLD official told us that he was very busy with inspection tours among dozens of poultry farms in the province, adding that his job was to issue permits for each key link in the poultry-raising process.

Large poultry farms in Thailand usually import parent stocks from Britain and France. There are many key links in the duck-raising process, which are under the DLD supervision. DLD constantly sends inspection officials to the farms to check the newly arrived parent ducks, sanitary conditions as well as incubation and slaughtering facilities. Despite all of these complicated measures and close supervision, the ducks in this farm only qualify for domestic sale. Japanese and European Union markets demand much more strict biosecurity measures.

Still, this did not mean that permission to visit this farm came easily. Inter Press Service (IPS) Asia-Pacific, organiser of the workshop around which this field visit was arranged, had also tried to arrange a visit to the largest poultry enterprise near Bangkok - which declined the request. It then persuaded this medium-size farm to receive our group of international journalists. IPS Asia-Pacific also tried to have five reporters with cameras allowed inside the duck houses, but this request was turned down.

Poultry farms have reason to refuse visitors. Hundred of thousands of birds were culled after bird flu hit central and northern areas of Thailand in July 2006. The outbreaks also killed two humans and more than a thousand people were quarantined.

When bird flu re-emerged in Southeast Asia during the turn of 2003 and 2004, the Thai government paid farmers twice the market price for each culled bird. This generous compensation policy was regarded as very effective in controlling the epidemic, despite the huge cost. Nowadays, compensation has fallen to 75 percent of market price for each culled bird. This change in the compensation policy has been interpreted as the government's intention to urge the poultry industry to strengthen biosecurity measures that were not faithfully implemented in practice.

In this sense, bird flu has had some good effect in promoting food security awareness and the modernisation of the poultry industry.

(*This article was written by Zhu Yan of CCTV (http://blog.cctv.com/zhuyan) for 'China Youth Daily' (Dec. 19, 2006 issue) under the Avian Flu Series of the Imaging Our Mekong programme (2007-08), implemented by IPS Asia-Pacific and Probe Media Foundation Inc) with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. He translated this article from his original Chinese text.)