Spend more on vet services to curb pandemic threat, says animal health body

{"text":[[{"start":9.44,"text":"Countries need to spend billions of dollars more on veterinary and other animal health services to curb the threat of catastrophes such as mass livestock culls or even a human pandemic, the head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (Woah) has recommended."}],[{"start":24.88,"text":"Public and private sectors need to raise investment, while governments should beware the false economy of cutting animal health spending to divert resources to security budgets, Emmanuelle Soubeyran said in an interview."}],[{"start":36.72,"text":"Deadly outbreaks of Ebola and rodent-borne hantavirus this year have highlighted the threat of so-called zoonotic conditions that spill over from livestock or wild creatures to humans."}],[{"start":47.08,"text":"Mass exterminations of chickens owing to the spread of bird flu have also laid bare the costs of animal diseases."}],[{"start":53.84,"text":"“Until all countries . . . have strong veterinary services, you have a vulnerability,” said Soubeyran, whose background is in veterinary medicine and public health."}],[{"start":63.28,"text":"Woah estimates that spending on public animal health systems needs to rise by an estimated $2.3bn a year to improve surveillance and meet international standards. The money is needed for vets, workforce capacity, laboratory systems, surveillance, medicines, regulatory and inspection functions, and service delivery to farmers, it says."}],[{"start":83.88,"text":"International development assistance for veterinary services is at present less than $1bn a year, Woah estimates, pointing out that this shows the scale of the investment gap."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":94.12,"text":"While it was “understandable” governments were reallocating money towards security and defence, it would be a mistake to cut animal health funding to help achieve this, Soubeyran warned. Diseases of animal origin could be spread deliberately and used as bioweapons, she added."}],[{"start":109.08,"text":"“Strengthening veterinary services is also a part of strengthening global and national security,” she said. “It really has an impact on food security, on public health, on the economy, on livelihood, trade — and also biodiversity.”"}],[{"start":123.56,"text":"Animals are estimated by Woah to account for only 0.6 per cent of global health spending, even though the majority of established and emerging human infectious diseases have animal origins. A fifth or more of global livestock production is lost to preventable diseases each year, the organisation says."}],[{"start":139.6,"text":"More than 160mn chickens in 64 countries have died since last year from bird flu or culls in response to it. The virus has spread to animals including cattle, dolphins and domestic pets, stoking fears it could exchange genetic material with other existing pathogens and become readily transmissible to and between humans."}],[{"start":160.56,"text":"In the US, where tens of millions of hens were culled, egg prices have soared since the outbreak began, although the Department of Justice has since found companies colluded to drive prices higher still."}],[{"start":172.24,"text":"Woah is working with countries to reduce obstacles to vaccination against bird flu, which could be a good prevention method “in some situations”, Soubeyran said."}],[{"start":181.8,"text":"The return of New World screwworm to the US — a flesh-eating parasite that had been eradicated from there for decades — has also highlighted the potential cost of allowing longstanding animal-health defences to weaken."}],[{"start":194.68,"text":"The pest spread from Panama north through Central America and Mexico before reaching the US in June, fuelling accusations that years of under-investment, followed by recent staffing cuts, left authorities poorly prepared."}],[{"start":208.72,"text":"Soubeyran said Woah was working with affected countries and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to co-ordinate a response."}],[{"start":219.64,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787051853_4511.mp3"}