The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Friday it has approved a 1-million-dollar technical assistance grant to help develop a regional cooperation framework in controlling animal diseases in the Mekong sub-region. The Manila-based ADB said the grant would integrate various activities among countries in the Mekong region to control transboundary animal diseases such as swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu. The ADB noted that such diseases kill animals and reduce productivity, threaten livelihoods of poor farmers, drain public sector resources, restrict trade and overall hinder efforts to reduce poverty. "The technical assistance will address common issues related to the control of the diseases, which are predominantly spread by animal movement across borders in Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam," the bank said. ADB project economist Akmal Siddiq said the immediate task was to develop a framework for regional cooperation, upgrade national and regional laboratories, and build up staff capacity of participating countries. "In the long term, this will enhance food security, safety and promote greater trade in livestock and livestock products," he said. "The project represents a major shift toward control rather than the traditional approach of applying mass, blanket vaccination to control outbreaks, which has proven unsustainable and expensive," Siddiq added. According to an ADB study, morbidity and mortality rates of livestock due to the three diseases are often as high as 70 per cent in the Mekong sub-region, where nearly 23 million people are farmers who depend on livestock for food and a source of income.
