News
Office in India
BFC has opened a representative office in New Delhi and
appointed Mr. Runny Thomas as BFC representative in India.
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Welcome to India
Handling outbreaks of High Pathogen Avian Influenza
In February 2008, BFC has been requested by the Indian poultry industry to come to India on a mission to explore the possibilities to strengthen the poultry industry as well as the governmental outbreak response structure in handling outbreaks of High Pathogen Avian Influenza.
Key findings:
- India has strong veterinary service structure
- High level of knowledge on Avian Influenza
- Limited presence of international aid organisations like the FAO compared with neighbouring country states.
- India is on the highest level of alert
- Currently battling with an outbreak of AI in the province West Bengal.
India - fast growing economy
India is a fast growing economy, especially due to its strong industrial position. The Indian poultry industry is no exception to that.
- Sixth largest poultry market in the world
- The average level of annual growth in production and consumption over the last five years has been 9%.
Access to international markets
The government and the industry are now trying to get more access for their products to international markets, using its advantage over countries like Brazil of being geographically close to the Middle East.
The current outbreaks of AI in the region threaten to influence India's current and future position on both the domestic and the international poultry market. This will also have a major impact on local production of proteins, influencing the local community. Especially small local poultry producers are in danger to loose their source of income.
Difficulties to introduce bio security methods
Although 60% of poultry and poultry products is produced through industrial production, they represent only less than 1 % of the locations were the poultry production takes place. That means that response is mainly focussed on backyard farming situations. This makes it very difficult to introduce bio security methods as a preventive measure. This implicates also the importance of controlling life bird markets to prevent possible cross infection during a possible outbreak of Avian Influenza.
Poultry industry - corporation with BFC
The poultry industry is organized within several large poultry associations, working in close contact with government officials. The industry is very much interested in corporation with BFC in training the poultry industry on prevention and protection for animal diseases and the introduction of biosecurity and biosafety to all levels of the Indian poultry industry, including the small holders.
There is a big need for improvement of the current poultry production before future major outbreaks of AI occur in India. This is both the opinion of the Indian government and the Indian poultry industry. BFC could play a key role in the development of a national training and information center.
No general guidelines and Standard Operational Procedures yet
India has yet not introduced general guidelines and Standard Operational Procedures to strengthen the structure for outbreak response. BFC could play a major role in the development of these guidelines and procedures based upon the specific situation in India.
BFC activities in India during this 4 week mission
BFC introduced a comprehensive plan, consisting the following elements:
- Introduction outbreak response management to the Ministry of Agriculture Department of Animal Husbandry and the poultry industry
- Introduction of new depopulation techniques for backyard situations as well for large scale farms
- Exploring the possibilities to develop a National Training and Information Center
In general, BFC could help the Indian government and the poultry industry to improve its capacity to handle future outbreaks by reviewing the current planning, the Indian organizational structures (veterinary- and poultry industry related).
BFC technical approach
Our technical approach is based on previous and current work that BFC and its partners have conducted on HPAI prevention, control, and outbreak response. The five integrated elements of our technical approach are:
- Background Research and Literature Review.
- Interviews of Key Stakeholders in India and Poultry Industry Experts.
- Field Visits.
- Documenting Key Elements in Outbreak Response Procedures and draft Versions of Manuals.
- Hands-On Training of Outbreak Response Teams.
BFC office in New Delhi
To organize this, BFC has opened a representative office in New Delhi and appointed Mr. Runny Thomas as BFC representative in India. For more information about the BFC activities in India, please contact Mr. Runny Thomas.