TOPIC: ANIMAL AGRICULTURE AND PUBLIC HEALTH: The case of Avian Influenza (“Bird flu”).
Traditionally, the Veterinary Profession has been concerned in varying degrees with problems of Agriculture, Biology and Public Health. However, growing interest in the comparative aspects of disease management has now become the common ground between veterinary and human medicine leading to - The One Health Concept. Zoonotic diseases may be simply defined as infections naturally transmitted between humans and vertebrate animals. According to the WHO, at least 60% of all human pathogens are of zoonotic origin and about 75% of emerging pathogens in man, can be linked to animal origins. Ghana is currently experiencing outbreaks of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)-a disease that is transmitted from poultry to man. The closeness of man with domestic animals which provide him with food, fiber and draught power and the zoonotic diseases that arise as a result of this closeness and the consumption of animal products, are discussed. HPAI has been used as the prototype to describe the occurrence, spread, control and the socio-economic impact of some of these zoonotic diseases.
Ghana experienced her first HPAI outbreaks in October 2006-2007 and the disease was effectively controlled in the country and within the West Africa subregion. However after this success, there appears to have been a gradual breakdown in surveillance systems over the past nine years and the levels of biosecurity practiced on various farms declined as a result of lack of sustained farmer education. In May 2015, HPAI made a spectacular come back and new outbreaks of the disease were reported, especially in Greater Accra Region. As at the end of January 2016, total outbreaks of HPAI encountered were 37 made up of i) Greater Accra 31, ii) Volta 2, iii) Ashanti 1, iv) Central 1, v) Western , 2. The effect of outbreaks of HPAI on peoples’ livelihoods and its zoonotic nature are discussed. Behavior change and the maintenance of strict biosecurity are recommended to be adopted as part of the counter epizootic measures to curtail the spread of HPAI. Close collaboration between the Veterinary and the Medical profession is critical in the eventual control and eradication of this and other zoonotic disease from the country and elsewhere.
