Sabah offers to meet
p'sula pork shortage
Published on: Friday, May 05, 2006
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Kota Kinabalu: Sabah is prepared to export pork
to Peninsular Malaysia, which is presently experiencing an acute
shortage. Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Abdul
Rahim Ismail said Thursday the State has more than enough supply
of pork and is presently exporting some to Brunei, Sarawak and
Labuan.
"We
have more than 100 per cent self sufficiency in pork production
and the State is also free from diseases which affect pig
farms," he said when asked to comment on reports that pork
prices have soared in the peninsular due to closure of farms. It
was reported that pork prices had reached a record RM660 per
100kg in Melaka in the wake of loss of interest by farmers to
invest due to closure of farms in many states. Chia Keok Keong,
treasurer of the Federation of Livestock Farmers Associations of
Malaysia, said the high rate was because of lack of supply.
With
many states determined to close down pig farms, Chia said this
had caused uncertainty among the farmers who were no longer
willing to invest. The production of pork in the country
suffered a 40 per cent drop after the Nipah virus outbreak in
1999 with the closure of farms at Bukit Pelandok in Negeri
Sembilan.
This
was made worse when 20 per cent of the remaining farmers in the
other states also stopped rearing pigs because of restrictions
imposed by the states. Last October's outbreak of the hand, foot
and mouth disease in Penang, Selangor and Johor caused many pigs
to die and this was the main reason for the present shortage.
Sabah, which also banned the import of pork products from the
peninsula following the outbreak of these diseases, is currently
waiting an amendment to the State Animal Ordinance to enable the
implementation of more stringent control on pig farming
activities.
A
draft for the purpose is presently still at the
Attorney-General's Chambers for endorsement before it goes to
the State Cabinet. Abdul Rahim hoped new State Attorney-General,
Antony Roderic @ Manthoapil Fernandez, would be able to speed up
the process so that the new rule can implemented soon. He was
met after a general assembly for the Ministry officials and
staff held at Wisma Pertanian here Thursday. Also present were
his two Assistant Ministers, Bobbey Suan and Japlin Akim, the
Ministry's Permanent Secretary, Datuk Gregory Joitol, and all
the department directors and deputy directors.
Department of Veterinary Services and Animal Industry (Dovsai)
Sabah Director, Haji Awang Sahak Salleh, meanwhile, said
department officials together with Sabah Livestock Association
would organise a trade mission to Singapore on May 18. The trade
mission, to be led by Bobbey, is to reciprocate a visit by
importers of livestock products from the island nation to Sabah
in March last year and aims to discuss how the poultry, eggs and
pork products from Sabah can be exported to Singapore.
China needs better
bird flu surveillance - experts
BEIJING (Reuters) - China needs to improve its surveillance
of the bird flu virus after a recent rise in human cases,
but there are no signs the country is on the verge of an
epidemic, U.N. experts said on Wednesday.China reported
eight human cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in January,
five of whom died, which appeared independent of any known
case in birds.
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A chicken is
seen at a poultry market in Nanning, Guangxi
province, in this January 27, 2009 file photo.
China needs to improve its surveillance of the
bird flu virus after a recent rise in human
cases, but there are no signs the country is on
the verge of an epidemic, U.N. experts said on
Wednesday. (REUTERS/Stringer/Files)
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Hans Troedsson, the World Health Organisation's China
representative, said their risk assessment had not changed
following the new cases as it was normal during the winter
months."Why we don't expect this is the beginning of an
epidemic is these cases are geographically distributed and
there are no links between them," he told the Foreign
Correspondents Club of China.
"All of them have been exposed either to sick or dead
poultry or wet markets. There is plausible explanation for
how it can be transmitted. There's no indication of human to
human transmission."One problem is the lack of reports of
bird outbreaks."What it tells us is we still have a very
serious situation in the agriculture sector," he said. "The
virus is well-entrenched and circulating in the environment.
"It is of great concern for us. It's something we are
raising, both the WHO and FAO, with the government,"
Troedsson added, refering to the Food and Agricultural
Organisation.With the world's biggest poultry population and
hundreds of millions of backyard birds, China is seen as
critical in the fight to contain bird flu.Vincent Martin,
the FAO's senior technical adviser in Beijing, said China
needed better sampling."They are taking millions of samples
every year to try to check the status of the poultry
population in terms of avian influenza viruses," Martin
said. "It's a huge task and it's really a huge challenge for
them.
"Although they are doing a lot of surveillance, definitely
more can be done. They can increase surveillance, not only
increase in terms of taking more samples, but doing it at
the right place, doing it where you think you can get the
virus."The H5N1 flu remains largely a virus among birds, but
experts fear it could change into a form that is easily
transmitted among humans and spark a pandemic that could
kill millions worldwide.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed 254 people out of 406
infected in 15 countries -- Myanmar, Bangladesh, Turkey,
Djibouti, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, Indonesia,
Thailand, Vietnam, China, Nigeria, Laos and Cambodia.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
Nipah Virus
probe team honoured with Merdeka Award
By LISA GOH
PETALING JAYA: The courage shown by the investigation
team dealing with the highly infectious Nipah Virus, an
unknown disease in 1999 with no known cure and rapidly
fatal, was exemplary, said Universiti Malaya Medicine
Faculty’s Prof C.T. Tan.
Prof Tan, who headed the Nipah Virus Investigating Team
in 1999, after the outbreak started in 1998, said it was
“the entire team’s effort” which led to their success in
identifying the virus and bringing it under
control.“Initially, the virus was thought to be the
Japanese encephalitis (JE) carried by mosquitoes.
“But we found that it was not JE, and that this virus
spread directly from pigs to humans, the solution was to
cull the infected pigs to stop the spread of the virus.
And then the infection came under control,” he said.Prof
Tan and his team, consisting of specialists and
researchers from the fields of virology, neurology,
pathology, radiology, infectious diseases and intensive
care, were joint recipients of the Merdeka Award under
the Health, Science and Technology Category. The
Star is the official media of the Merdeka Awards.
“I’m very, very pleased. This award is very meaningful
for our team and an affirmation of the good work that we
have done,” Prof Tan said in an interview last
Wednesday.They were honoured for their “contribution in
the understanding of the causes, effects and control of
the Nipah encephalitis viral infection”, which
had infected 350 people, and killed 105 persons.
The other recipient of the award in the same category
was Prof Datuk Dr Khalid Kadir.Both teams received a
certificate, a trophy and one half of the RM500,000 cash
prize.Prof Tan, a neurologist whose main work is on
epilepsy, said the team had also worked out the
management strategy and treatments of the infection.In
the scientific world, the team has received
international recognition with their journals published
in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet,
Annals of Neurology, American Journal of Pathology
and Journal of Virology.
They have also been made World Health Organisation (WHO)
consultants, and were in Bangladesh in 2004 during a
Nipah encephalitis outbreak there.Asked what his
team planned to do with the RM250,000 award money, Prof
Tan said the money could be used for projects that they
have problems getting funding for.
“This is
our recognition outside the scientific world. It’s a
great morale boost for good science,”
he said.
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