Livestock production is of great importance for the well-being of the inhabitants of this region and livestock trading contributes very significantly to national economies. Hence rinderpest eradication is a major concern for the countries participating at this meeting. The 1999 meeting was held in Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic and provided the opportunity for veterinary scientists engaged in rinderpest diagnosis, surveillance and control to review progress in rinderpest eradication and consider strategy options.
The project has been an outstanding example of the value of the close working relationship that exists between the countries, IAEA, the Joint FAO/IAEA Division and FAO EMPRES. It has made a very significant contribution to the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme (GREP) in West Asia through its activities extending from Turkey to the Arabian Peninsula and the Near East to Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics. In addition to transferring diagnostic technology for rinderpest diagnosis and surveillance, the project created an enabling environment for application of the technology in making progress towards the final goal of verified freedom from rinderpest.
Participants this year were drawn from the Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey, Yemen and Kazakhstan, with Pakistan an observer as in earlier meetings. The contribution of the participants from the SRAI Laboratory in Kazakhstan was particularly valuable as the laboratory provides advice on rinderpest strategy to the Central Asian countries. Formerly this laboratory was designated as the prime rinderpest laboratory for the USSR.
The project area covers what are almost certainly the last two strongholds of Asian lineage rinderpest virus - Pakistan and Afghanistan and Yemen. Despite this and accruing evidence of rinderpest absence in most areas, progress in reflecting rinderpest freedom in official OIE declarations is slow and many countries continue with routine blanket vaccination programmes. Primarily this is because of lack of confidence on the part of senior veterinary managers in some countries that the disease has indeed been eradicated from most of the area. However, progress is being made, as is illustrated by the OIE Declarations of Provisional Freedom from Rinderpest from Turkey and Jordan, with other countries expected to follow suit in the near future.
During the meeting, there was considerable discussion on the need to rely for safety on strengthening surveillance and emergency preparedness, rather than to attempt mass vaccination, while focusing eradication by intensive vaccination in areas of virus persistence defined by active disease surveillance. This strategy recognizes that routine vaccination programmes that achieve suboptimal herd immunity levels cannot be relied on to eradicate rinderpest from areas of endemic persistence. In rinderpest-free areas, such low immunity levels do not prevent the spread of rinderpest but serve to slow down its spread and make the disease more difficult to detect. This results in a false sense of security.
Two areas of uncertainty, in particular, inhibit progress in abandoning reliance on mass vaccination programmes. The first is seen by some countries (notably the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq and Iran) to be the unproved freedom from rinderpest of the countries involved in the "Kurdish triangle" where infection is thought to have persisted until 1996. The second involves the long-held suspicion by the Central Asian countries (and the Russian Federation) that a reservoir of rinderpest infection still persists in Mongolia and northern China. Both issues need resolving if progress towards verified freedom is to be achieved in a timely manner.
All countries expressed the urgent need to redouble efforts to eradicate the last remaining foci of endemic rinderpest persistence in Asia which constitute a threat to all countries in the region, several of which have been free from the disease for many years. In the last five years the project has been a most valuable mechanism for dissemination of information and coordination of activities in rinderpest eradication. It has provided virtually the only coordinating forum for the region since the West Asian Rinderpest Eradication Campaign (WAREC) ended in 1994. Unfortunately, this was probably the last meeting of the project and its termination leaves a void in the region. For GREP to progress satisfactorily, a means must be found to enhance technology transfer, technical support and coordination activities to build on the achievements of what was truly a "model" project.
A representative from the Ministry of Agriculture declares the country "provisionally free" from the disease.
(Summary of two communications received by OIE on 2 August and 22 November 1999 from Dr T.O. Abedunge, Department of Livestock and Pest Control Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Abuja)
The Niger confirms its status of country "provisionally free" from the disease.
(Text of a fax received by OIE on 22 October 1999 from Mr Aminou Tassiou, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Production, Niamey)
In recent decades, the rinderpest control strategy in the Niger has been based mainly on immunization of cattle during the annual mass vaccination campaigns throughout the country. Since 1990, control has been conducted within the framework of the Pan African Rinderpest Campaign (PARC) financed by the European Development Fund (EDF). The PARC has, in addition, enabled serological surveys to be carried out and, more generally, the intervention capacities of the Veterinary Services to be strengthened.
No cases of rinderpest have been recorded in the Niger since 1986, and the risk of the disease occurring is now low. This is due in particular to:
In November 1997, the Niger declared itself provisionally free from rinderpest, with a cessation of vaccination throughout the country with the exception of the department of Diffa (see Disease Information, 10 [44]: 156, 7 November 1997). Given the epidemiological situation referred to above and in accordance with the relevant provisions of the International Animal Health Code, the Niger has decided to extend the cessation of rinderpest vaccination to the entire country with effect from 1 November 1999 and hereby confirms its declaration as a country provisionally free from rinderpest.
The measures accompanying this decision are as follows:
The delegate declares the country "provisionally free" from the disease.
(Text of a communication received by OIE on 16 November 1999 from Dr S.S.E. Ranawana, Director General, Department of Animal Production and Health (DAP&H), Peradeniya)
After 40 years of freedom from rinderpest, Sri Lanka became infected in 1987. This infection affected most parts of the island. Enzootic infection became established in North-and-East Province (NEP) up to February 1994. Sporadic outbreaks in other parts of the country were observed only up to 1992. The disease situation was reviewed by a joint FAO/EU mission in 1994. This mission suggested the need for a short-term containment, subsequently approved for implementation under the FAO-funded Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) project TCP/SRL/4554. This project was designed to contain rinderpest in NEP and to strengthen rinderpest control nationwide, laying the foundation for progress towards eradication within the context of OIE guidelines.
The conditions stipulated in section 3a (ii-iv) of the recommended standards for epidemiological surveillance systems for rinderpest (see International Animal Health Code, Appendix 4.5.1.1) cannot be strictly observed in NEP owing to the ongoing civil war. Intensive surveillance was conducted in NEP for six months (from April to September 1999) and DAP&H is confident that the existing veterinary service - through 31 Government Veterinary Offices (GVOs) - would have detected any outbreak of disease if it occurred. Therefore DAP&H feels confident that no clinical case of rinderpest has occurred since February 1994.
A serosurveillance programme, which has already been conducted in the rest of the country, has commenced in NEP.
The requirements laid down by OIE in order to justify the declaration of provisional freedom from disease have already been fulfilled in seven provinces, namely North-Central, North-Western, Central, Western, Uva, Sabaragamuwa and South, as indicated below:
Sri Lanka now declares itself provisionally free from rinderpest.
I am pleased to announce the following key appointment within the Infectious Diseases-EMPRES Group.
The Director-General has appointed Peter Roeder as Animal Health Officer (Virology), a post which carries with it the responsibility of being the GREP Secretary, with effect from 1 January 2000.
Until his new assignment, Peter was responsible for infectious disease emergencies within the EMPRES Group. He joined FAO in 1993 as Chief Technical Advisor to the Philippines Animal Health Center project before transferring to FAO headquarters in Rome in September 1994 to join the newly constituted Infectious Diseases-EMPRES Group. Since joining the team in Rome, Peter has visited more than 50 countries in the course of his work, so I am sure that he is well known to many of you.
Peter is a graduate of the Royal Veterinary College, London, with a master's degree in Tropical Veterinary Science from the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine of Edinburgh University and a Ph.D. in Veterinary Virology from London University. Before joining FAO, he undertook several long-term overseas assignments working in disease investigation in Botswana, Ethiopia and Nigeria for ten years and also spent ten years in applied research at the Central Veterinary Laboratory and at the Pirbright Laboratory in the United Kingdom.
This appointment gives added emphasis to the importance of the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme and highlights the final thrust to eradication which is under way.
Mark Rweyemamu
Senior Officer, Infectious Diseases-EMPRES Group