19 August 2009

Addis Ababa — A Pan-African Technical Workshop on Avian and Human Influenza was kicked off yesterday at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa and being held till Friday.

The four days workshop, under the theme: "bridging gaps to sustain and broaden gains in HPAI prevention and control in Africa" was organized by the African Union Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources Bureau AU/ IBAR.

It is being held with the overall aim of improving coordination of the Integrated National Action plans (INAPs) implementation by bringing African countries and other key actors together to take stocks of their Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) preparedness, share information on emerging HPAI issues and Harmonize the application of emerging global straggles with national, regional and continental ones.

According to the organizers, the workshop further seeks to deliberate on avian and human influenza with the view of learning lesson, identifying gaps and the means to address them, as well as reaching a common African position on the way forward for AHI.

Opening the workshop, Ethiopia's State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD), Dr. Abera Deressa, said Africa's economy is primarily based on agriculture which provides more than 85% of export receipts and represents almost 40% of the national GDP and the livestock represents 12% of overall GDP and on average but the livestock industry is heavily constrained by the animal disease, law investment, poor access to markets and a week policy environments.

Citing the cases of Ethiopia, he said Ethiopia's livestock population is one of the largest in Africa. However, this huge potential of the livestock subsector has remained largely under exploited because of many reasons, of which animal disease is one.

Ethiopia has a large poultry population estimated at 42 million out of which, 97:8% comprises indigenous birds while 2.2% are exotic breeds, according to the State Minister who also indicated traditional poultry production dominates the system.

"Most of the poultry farming takes place in rural villages," he said adding few commercial farms that operate are geographically concentrated in the Addis Ababa-Debre Zeit corridor for marketing.

"The program targets priorities defined by the countries and AU/IBAR has don a commendable job of empowering member states in the prevention and control of Avian and Human influenza," Abera noted.

Ambassador John Kayonde Shinkaiye, AU Commission Chief of Staff indicated on his part that the two types of influenza were currently at the centre of the global agenda killing both people and poultry, thereby causing a double disaster - destroying human lives and livelihoods.

He added "the threat of an avian influenza pandemic is still one of the most important health threats that we face today. Although we are currently in the middle of a relatively mild H1N1 pandemic, the impact could be a lot worse if it adapts the pathogenicity of avian influenza. We therefore all need to work closely together, in a coordinated and mutually reinforcing manner to conquer the threat."

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