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FROM
$1.2 billion to $1.5 billion in additional funds are
needed to help countries immediately put in place
systems for rapid response to a hit by the dreaded avian
influenza or bird flu virus, according to the World
Bank.
A year
ago, donor countries pledged $1.9 billion to help
countries put such systems in place and donors meeting
in
Bamako,
Mali,
in December pledged an additional $475 million to bring
the total grants to nearly $2.4 billion.
The WB
said spending now on control is worthwhile insurance,
since the economic costs of a human pandemic would be
enormous—estimated at $1.2 trillion to $2 trillion, as
shown by the bank’s simulations of a severe case
scenario.
So far,
the human death toll from bird flu remains relatively
small. By the end of 2006, the World Health Organization
said the total bird flu human cases stood at 261, and
the number of deaths at 157.
The bank
said the additional funds will pay for a broad range of
activities to strengthen human and animal health
services, including the purchase of poultry vaccines,
equipment and staff training.
It would
also be used to quickly compensate poor farmers whose
poultry are slaughtered because of exposure to bird flu.
These payments, according to WB rural strategy advisor
Christopher Delgado, will encourage small farmers to
report outbreaks. “Compensation is fundamental to animal
disease control everywhere, especially in developing
countries where you’re reliant on the compliance
of small farmers for success.”
He
added, “The problem is that in developing countries a
lot of livestock and a lot of poultry are kept on very
small farms in very remote places. If these producers do
not comply with orders to report outbreaks or cooperate
in presenting animals for culling when requested,
[countries affected] are not going to be successful at
disease control.”
Data
from the Food and Agriculture Organization, over 220
million domestic birds—most owned by poor farmers in
developing countries—have died or been culled
(selectively slaughtered) in efforts to contain the
virus. Economic losses in Southeast Asian poultry alone
are estimated at around $10 billion, and culling has
cost the African poultry industry $60 million. |
