Federal Minister of National Food Security and Research, Syed Fakhar Imam, chaired a consultative workshop on “Pakistan Foot & Mouth Disease Control Program – A National Roadmap” organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in collaboration with the Ministry of National Food Security and Research on 14 October 2021.
Federal Minister for National Food and Security, Syed Fakhar Imam, said that Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a menace that causes approximately USD 693 million loss to the economy in a single year. However, it is never accounted for in the country.
Of the 181 member countries of OIE, 113, including Pakistan, are affected to various degrees by FMD. The remaining 68 countries are enjoying FMD free status but are under constant threat of incursion from FMD endemic countries through international trade. That is why they restrict trade from such countries or allow entry of only those products which have no risk of carrying FMD agents to their country. Thus, 75 percent of the costs attributed to FMD prevention and control are incurred by FMD affected countries.
Fakhar Imam said that FAO had implemented several programs on FMD in Pakistan funded by different donors like Italy, the USA, and Japan. Under these programs, surveillance of FMD was carried out, which indicated that the ‘O,’ ‘A,’ and ‘Asia-I’ strains of FMD were circulated in different parts of the country.
There were some areas where mixed strains of the FMD virus were detected. As many as 20,495 dairy farmers were trained in FMD prevention, and more than 16 veterinary professionals were trained in FMD diagnosis, disease investigation, and response. Around 8-11 million doses of FMD vaccine were imported and used for ring vaccination around the epicenter of the FMD outbreak. The peri-urban diaries were also included in the project, and it was proved that FMD occurrence can be prevented by vaccinating animals twice a year with a quality vaccine.
Furthermore, he said that it is time now to react to this very neglected subsector of agriculture, which contributes to over 61 percent of agriculture value addition and more than 11 percent of overall GDP. In the initial step, we need to prevent the occurrence of diseases especially the trade limiting diseases like FMD.
Federal Minister said that the development of the national FMD control program will be presented to the planning commission. He said this program shall include but not be limited to the establishment of FMD Free zone through mass vaccination; risk-based Strategic Vaccination for FMD hotspots in the rest of the country; developing and implementing animal identification system at the national level to monitor the movement of animals across the country.
An FMD vaccine shall be produced locally to make the program cost-effective in the long run through its own or donor’s assistance.
