5th Meeting of the Lower Mekong Working Group on Foot and Mouth Disease Zoning and Animal Movement Management
(Sakaeo, Thailand, 17-19 October 2006)
The Meeting was attended by about 40 participants: delegates and observers from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, Australia (Geelong Laboratory), EU Small Scale Livestock Project in Cambodia, and also from international organisations such as OIE Asia-Pacific and OIE SEAFMD as well as FAO-ADB Great Mekong Transboundary Animal Disease Project.
The Meeting was organised in Sakaeo; the border town with Cambodia, about 3.5 hours from Bangkok by car, to have an opportunity to observe border animal movement management between Thailand and Cambodia and between one province to another within Thailand. The participants saw activities of well-trained sniffer dog of the Thai Government for animal quarantine at the border, that detected smuggled pork in carts of people entering Thailand from Cambodia.
Welcome addresses were delivered by Mr Sombon Si Pattananwal, Governor of Sakaeo Province, Dr T. Fujita, OIE Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Dr G. Murray, President of SEAFMD Commission and Dr Chaweewan Leowijuk, Deputy Director General of Department of Livestock Development, Thailand who hosted the Meeting at Sakaeo. Dr Fujita welcomed all the participants and stated the importance of controlling FMD which affects the livestock sector lowering animal productivity and the impediment of marketing and international trade, and also the importance of capacity building of National Veterinary Services and regional cooperation in controlling FMD due to its transboundary nature. He touched on some recent cases of FMD in China and Vietnam. He mentioned the progress of tentative nomination of the functional GF-TADs Regional Support Unit and of Leading Countries for targeted Transboudary Animal Diseases such as FMD, HPAI and CSF by the ASEAN member countries, which will be reported to the meeting of ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry to be held in Singapore in November 2006.
The participating countries reported on the recent situations of FMD in their respective countries. Each of participating organisations, OIE Asia-Pacific, SEAFMD RCU, Australia, EU and FAO, discussed their recent activities of animal health including FMD control, in particular zoning and animal movement management in this sub-region.
The Meeting noted the following:
- Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Vietnam and Cambodia on “Animal Health Cooperation”;
- Progress of the FMD control zones in Region II, Thailand and five provinces in the southern part of Laos;
- Thailand’s donation of 10,000 doses of FMD vaccines to Cambodia, and the possibility of additional support in the near future;
- The sero-surveillance results from the 2006 survey to be further analysed; and
- The importance of collecting more samples for antigen typing and also of the submission of samples to the FMD Regional Reference Laboratory in Packchong, Thailand.
The meeting recommended the following:
- The further refinement of a draft protocol to manage livestock movement in the Lower Mekong Basin, taking into consideration the implementation of an acceptable quarantine period, animal identification, vaccination and testing for antibodies due to infection;
- Import/export certificates to be used consistent with the OIE Code, and printed in the languages of the importing/exporting countries as well as in English;
- Basic training on FMD outbreak investigation, reporting and emergency control measures in Vietnam and Cambodia;
- An in-depth epidemiological studies and socio-economic impact of the 2006 FMD outbreaks in Vietnam and Cambodia;
- SEAFMD RCU to explore the possibility of additional resources for FMD vaccines and arrangement with Thai DLD to provide vaccines at cost to neighboring countries;
- SEAFMD RCU and Members to seek additional donors’ support to secure additional funds for FMD control given the under-investment in this area; and
- A major review of surveillance approaches to be undertaken with the objective of defining simplified and practical objectives.