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Why is Laos an exception?
The principal reason why Laos has not suffered widespread bird flu outbreaks like its neighbours is that there is almost no contact between its small-scale poultry farms, which produce nearly all of the domestic poultry supply, and its commercial operations, which are integrated with foreign poultry companies.
According to the US Department of Agriculture:
The poultry industry in Laos is predominantly one of smallholders, raising free-range, local chicken breeds nearby their dwellings for meat and eggs, mostly consumed by the household or sold locally for income ? An average village has around 350 chickens, ducks, turkeys and quail being raised in small flocks interspersed among village homes by about 78 families, with women primarily responsible for the flocks. Ducks, turkey, and quail are also raised, with negligible amounts of geese found scattered around the country.
The few commercial operations (less than 100 total, with 89 of these located near Vientiane) in the country supply nearby metropolitan areas ? Biosecurity and technology utilization are minimal, with little available veterinary care from either private or government sources.[24]
In other words, Laos is rife with free-ranging chickens mixing with ducks, quail, turkeys and wild birds. These are predominantly native chickens, which account for over 90% of Laos' total poultry production. If free-range farming and migratory birds are responsible for spreading bird flu, one would expect to find the disease raging across the country. This has not happened. In fact, the country's backyard farms have barely been touched.
According to the same USDA report:
A total of 45 outbreaks were confirmed, with 42 of these occurring on commercial enterprises (broiler and layer farms), 38 of these in Vientiane, the capitol and primary city of Laos. Another five outbreaks were found in Savannakhet Province (on one layer farm and in smallholder flocks) and another two in Champasak Province (on layer farms). Smallholders who found avian influenza in their flocks were located nearby commercial operations suffering the disease.
Laos effectively stamped out the disease by closing the border to poultry from Thailand and culling chickens at the commercial operations.
They were less concerned about the disease spreading out from the affected farms because, unlike in Thailand and Viet Nam, small-scale farmers in Laos are not supplied by big companies with day-old chicks or feed and, outside of the capital, poultry is produced and consumed locally.
Poultry production is also more spread out in Laos. It is less dense, less integrated and less homogeneous -- all of which keeps bird flu from spreading and evolving into more pathogenic forms.
The Laos experience suggests that the key to protecting backyard poultry and people from bird flu is to protect them from industrial poultry and poultry products.
This is relatively easy to do in a country like Laos where there are few factory farms, little use of outside inputs and essentially local food systems. It is much more difficult to extricate the industrial system from the small-scale poultry system in Thailand, Indonesia or China, where both are so intimately connected by geography, markets and production.
In these countries, "restructuring" poultry production in ways that support small-scale operations requires a 180-degree turn away from intensive, integrated factory farming and globalised production. This is not, however, what the FAO and governments have in mind when they talk of "restructuring".
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Why is Laos an exception?
The principal reason why Laos has not suffered widespread bird flu outbreaks like its neighbours is that there is almost no contact between its small-scale poultry farms, which produce nearly all of the domestic poultry supply, and its commercial operations, which are integrated with foreign poultry companies.
According to the US Department of Agriculture:
The poultry industry in Laos is predominantly one of smallholders, raising free-range, local chicken breeds nearby their dwellings for meat and eggs, mostly consumed by the household or sold locally for income ? An average village has around 350 chickens, ducks, turkeys and quail being raised in small flocks interspersed among village homes by about 78 families, with women primarily responsible for the flocks. Ducks, turkey, and quail are also raised, with negligible amounts of geese found scattered around the country.
The few commercial operations (less than 100 total, with 89 of these located near Vientiane) in the country supply nearby metropolitan areas ? Biosecurity and technology utilization are minimal, with little available veterinary care from either private or government sources.[24]
In other words, Laos is rife with free-ranging chickens mixing with ducks, quail, turkeys and wild birds. These are predominantly native chickens, which account for over 90% of Laos' total poultry production. If free-range farming and migratory birds are responsible for spreading bird flu, one would expect to find the disease raging across the country. This has not happened. In fact, the country's backyard farms have barely been touched.
According to the same USDA report:
A total of 45 outbreaks were confirmed, with 42 of these occurring on commercial enterprises (broiler and layer farms), 38 of these in Vientiane, the capitol and primary city of Laos. Another five outbreaks were found in Savannakhet Province (on one layer farm and in smallholder flocks) and another two in Champasak Province (on layer farms). Smallholders who found avian influenza in their flocks were located nearby commercial operations suffering the disease.
Laos effectively stamped out the disease by closing the border to poultry from Thailand and culling chickens at the commercial operations.
They were less concerned about the disease spreading out from the affected farms because, unlike in Thailand and Viet Nam, small-scale farmers in Laos are not supplied by big companies with day-old chicks or feed and, outside of the capital, poultry is produced and consumed locally.
Poultry production is also more spread out in Laos. It is less dense, less integrated and less homogeneous -- all of which keeps bird flu from spreading and evolving into more pathogenic forms.
The Laos experience suggests that the key to protecting backyard poultry and people from bird flu is to protect them from industrial poultry and poultry products.
This is relatively easy to do in a country like Laos where there are few factory farms, little use of outside inputs and essentially local food systems. It is much more difficult to extricate the industrial system from the small-scale poultry system in Thailand, Indonesia or China, where both are so intimately connected by geography, markets and production.
In these countries, "restructuring" poultry production in ways that support small-scale operations requires a 180-degree turn away from intensive, integrated factory farming and globalised production. This is not, however, what the FAO and governments have in mind when they talk of "restructuring".
More:
