Transboundary animal diseases are permanent global threat for livestock farmers. TADs are defined as: “Those that are of significant economic trade and/or food security importance for a considerable number of countries: which can easily spread to other countries and reach epidemic proportions; and where control management, including exclusion requires cooperation between several countries”. These diseases which cause a high morbidity and mortality in susceptible animal populations, constitute a constant threat to the livelihood of livestock farmers. Furthermore, their potential consequences are of such a magnitude that their occurrence may also have a significant detrimental effect on national economies. TADs have the potential to:
♦ Threaten food security through serious loss of animal protein and/or loss of draught animal power for cropping;
♦ Increase poverty levels particularly in poor communities that have a high incidence dependence on livestock farming for sustenance;
♦ Cause major production losses for livetsock products such as meat; milk and other dairy products; wooland other fibers and skins and hides, thereby reducing farm incomes. They may also restrict opportunities for upgrading the production potential of local livestock industries by making it difficult to utilise exotic high producing breeds which tend to be very susceptible to the transboundary disease;
♦ Add significantly to the cost of livestock production through the necessity to apply costly disease control measures;
♦ Seriously disrupt or inhibit trade in livestock and livestock products either within a country or internationally. Their occurrence may thereby cause major losses in national export income in significant livestock-producing countries;
♦ Cause public health consequences in the case of those transboundary animal diseases which can be transmitted to humans (i.e. zoonoses);
♦ Cause environmental consequences through die-offs in wildlife populations in some cases, and;
♦ Cause pain and suffering for affected animals.
TADs are permanent threat for livestock keepers. They have major economic implications: both through the private and public costs of the outbreak, and through the cost of the measures taken at individual, collective and international levels in order to prevent or control infection and disease outbreaks. Several challenges confront the strategies to combat TADs (FAO, 2008; Hitchcock et al., 2007). The major ones are presented below:
♦ Requirement of novel systems having capacity of real-time surveillance of emerging diseases. For this, need driven research and service oriented scientific technology are a necessary at regional levels. Research emphasis has to be on specific detection and identification of the infectious agents;
♦ Need for epidemiological methods to assess the dynamics of infections in the self and neighboring countries/regions. These methods should be of real-time utility;
♦ Need for research and development of disease diagnostic reagents those do not need refrigeration (cold chain). More importantly, they should be readily available as well as affordable, for use in pen-side test format;
♦ There are many diseases for which there is inadequate supply of vaccines or there are no vaccines available. Insufficient or lack of vaccine hampers the disease control programs. Need to build up vaccine banks for stockpiling the important vaccines to implement timely vaccination;
♦ Required availability of cost-effective intervention or disease control strategies. Even if a technology is available, it has to be cheaper to adopt at the point of use;
♦ Need for ensuring public awareness of epidemic animal diseases. Many farmers are unaware of the emerging diseases. As such, unless reported to concerned regional authority, an emerging disease may go unnoticed;
♦ Shortage of government and private funding for research on emerging animal disease problems. Government, as well as industries dealing with animal health, should take initiative and appropriate sponsorship in this regard, and;
♦ Inadequate regulatory standards for safe international trade of livestock and livestock products. Otherwise, there would be a compromised situation in disease control strategies.
The FAO Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) Animal Health develops strategies for intervention and improved management. It works to monitor and give early warning and ultimately to prevent animal diseases. The Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) is FAO’s corporate centre for the planning and delivery of veterinary assistance to FAO member countries responding to the threat of transboundary animal health crises. The Crisis Management Centre-Animal Health is FAO’s rapid response unit to animal disease emergencies. For example, highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza – bird flu. Since 2004 FAO has been at the forefront of the fight against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) – bird flu – in over 95 countries. FAO has mobilized over US$ 445 million to combat influenza and emerging disease threats through prevention, surveillance, and control.