Every village in China shall have an epidemic-monitoring worker
next year, to ensure animal disease and death in remote rural areas
can be reported and diagnosed in a timely fashion.
A contingency team consisting of experts will be set up under
the Ministry of Agriculture to cope with major contagions among
livestock.
These actions are among a raft of countermeasures the ministry
has worked out for 2006 to effectively control any animal
infections, chief veterinary officer Jia Youling said this
week.
"As epidemics like bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease are
likely to break out sporadically, the situation this winter and
next spring still allows for no optimism," he said.
On Friday night, the ministry announced that foot-and-mouth
disease had been detected at Changqing District, Jinan, capital of
east China's Shandong Province. The epidemic had sickened 48 cattle
since December 25 and prompted local veterinary workers to cull
another 91.
Epidemic prevention and control could be arduous in 2006, Jia
warned.
China reported 31 outbreaks of fatal bird flu among poultry in
2005. In July, streptococcus suis, a pig-borne bacteria, killed 38
people in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
All outbreaks have been stamped out, according to ministry
sources.
But avian influenza virulence has become stronger as the virus
has killed large flocks of migrating birds and water fowl, which in
the past only carried the virus and rarely fell ill, Jia said. It
has also infected seven people this year, involving three
fatalities.
In addition, risks remain that other animal diseases may
transmit to humans, and foreign epidemics such as mad cow disease
might make their way into China, Jia warned.
Despite steady efforts to improve preparedness and reinforce
prevention efforts in 2005, epidemic control at grassroots level
still needs to be strengthened, Jia said.
Therefore, the country will step up training of anti-epidemic
workers for townships and villages, and prioritize vaccination
against major animal infections in 2006, including bird flu and
Newcastle disease for poultry, and foot-and-mouth disease for
cattle, pigs and sheep, he said.
Aside from closely monitoring epidemics nationwide, animal
disease reporting mechanisms will be further improved in rural
communities, according to Jia.
By the end of 2005, China had 635,000 people engaged in
monitoring and reporting epidemic situations in villages, but such
workers are not available in every village.
"We'll strive to ensure all villages will have monitoring and
reporting workers," Jia said.
In emergency responses to outbreaks, the ministry will build an
emergency taskforce composed of experts from its affiliated
institutions in 2006, and similar contingency teams must be
launched at provincial levels, he said.
To improve quality of veterinary drugs, all producers that fail
to meet GMP (good manufacturing practice) standards by June 30 will
have their licenses revoked, the official said.
Despite the epidemics, China's animal husbandry industry
turnover is expected to reach 1,300 billion yuan (US$160 billion)
in 2005, a jump of nearly 30 percent from five years ago, according
to Shen Zhenzhao, director of the ministry's Animal Husbandry
Department.
Intensive farming also gathered steam in 2005. In swine farming,
for example, 34 percent of the livestock came from farms that each
raised at least 50 pigs. The percentage was 11 points higher than
five years ago, Shen said.
(China Daily December 31, 2005)