ISLAMABAD, May 7: Pakistan has decided to apply to the International Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to award it the status of ‘rinderpest-free country’, officials said.
Pakistan is among the few countries still not being recognized as free from the rinderpest, a viral disease in cattle that has been around since the Middle Ages, killing millions of animals. The disease itself now seems to be in its death throes globally, but it has recently struck back in a number of Asian and African countries.
Few years back, Pakistan declared provisional freedom from rinderpest on the OIE Pathway to Eradication. Countries that have detected no clinical sign of the disease for two years and have ceased vaccination may proclaim provisional freedom from the disease. Those with no disease and no vaccination may apply for ‘freedom’ from the disease after a further three-year period. Freedom from infection may be recognized two years later.
Pre-requisites are that countries should possess a disease surveillance system which would be able to detect rinderpest if it were present and that they can control the movement of livestock across their borders.
“On our request, the OIE experts will arrive in Pakistan and start collecting blood samples of animals from various parts of the country to know whether the disease still exists,” Dr R. H. Usmani, national coordinator for Strengthening of Livestock Services Project (SLSP), told Dawn.
Three years back, the SLSP — a six-year project — was initiated by the government and European Commission with an amount of 25.942 million euros with eradication of rinderpest as one of the main objectives.
Replying to a question, Dr Usmani said Pakistan had stopped administering vaccination against rinderpest three years back. He said a dossier — preparation of which is necessary before applying to OIE — was in progress.
“Normally, countries apply to the OIE in September. We would follow the same rule. We hope that by May next year Pakistan is awarded the rinderpest-free status,” he observed.
Epidemiological data prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations point towards the continued circulation of rinderpest in Pakistan. In 2000, the disease was detected on three occasions on intra-urban dairy farms in Karachi. These were the first confirmed outbreaks in Pakistan since the 1997 outbreak in Punjab. It indicated that the rinderpest virus has circulated in Pakistan, despite an absence of disease detections for almost three years.
Officials in the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal), however, said increased livestock trade along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was still a matter of concern. Afghanistan had been going through turbulent times in recent years as far as rinderpest was concerned.
They said there was an epidemic in the eastern region of Afghanistan between 1995 and 1997. Any resurgence of the diseases in Afghanistan could not only spread to Pakistan but Iran and Tajikistan also or may possibly further.