# 3005
Earlier today I published translations of several articles from the Arabic Press regarding Egypt’s problems dealing with their avian flu situation.
Machine translations are useful, of course, but can be difficult to read. Luckily Egypt’s Daily News, an English Language paper, has now published an article on some of these same issues.
The picture this article paints is of a poorly funded veterinary system struggling to cope with insufficient resources. Only enough vaccines for 20% of the poultry in the country, a fraction of the veterinarians needed to do the job, and even a lack of ground transportation.
This from Egypt’s Daily News.
Insufficient resources to combat avian flu, say experts
By Tamim Elyan
First Published: April 13, 2009CAIRO: Vaccines available against avian flu only cover 36 percent of 300 million birds in rural farms, according to a workshop held Sunday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the General Authority for Veterinary Services.
Titled “Evaluation of the National Campaign to Combat Avian Flu,” the workshop brought together experts who said that veterinary authorities’ efforts only cover 10 percent of poultry production.
They also criticized the inefficiency in testing for other diseases and monitoring animal slaughterhouses.
"The amount of vaccinations is barely sufficient to cover the workforce that will distribute them and the responsive farmers who are willing to vaccinate their birds," Saber Abdel Aziz, head of the epidemic and poultry diseases at the General Authority for Veterinary Services, told Daily News Egypt.
Abdel Aziz said that 600 million doses are needed to cover the entire poultry sector; however, the authority can only afford to provide 120 million doses.
Participants at the workshop criticized the lack of sufficient human and financial resources and called for a more active role by the veterinary services authority in combating the virus.
"Out of 13,000 registered veterinarians, we only have 6500 available, 70 percent of which are unqualified for field work because they are over 50 years old. We end up with only 1,200 veterinarians while at least 5,000 are needed," Abdel Aziz said
He explained that no new veterinarians have been appointed since 1994 because of the lack of funds.
Abdel Aziz added that there is a lack of preventive equipment such as special vests or cars to transfer veterinarians. “We only have 1,350 cars, that’s one car for every 20 veterinarians.”
Admittedly, some of the numbers in the above article don’t seem to add up, but the overall message is that the veterinary services in Egypt are falling far short of what they need to be doing to control the virus.
Not good news given the recent reports suggesting that the H5N1 virus may be changing in that country.
