ANIMAL HEALTH INSTITUTE INTERNATIONAL BODY FIGHTS SCOURGES IN THE NEAR EAST

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 27

ANIMAL HEALTH INSTITUTE INTERNATIONAL BODY FIGHTS SCOURGES IN THE NEAR EAST

[Reprinted from “The Times”] Twice in recent years Europe’s livestock industry has been threatened oy diseases which could cause a disaster if they obtained a foothold on the yontmcrit. 1 n .1960, African horse sickness, which had appeared in Asia lor the first time the previous year, reached Turkey, and was probably V J n^ f rom i nva ding Europe only by the onset of cold weather which killed the insects that spread this disease. The second emergency arose v+n ecem beil96l, when the SAT 1 strain of foot-and-mouth disease, hitherto confined to Africa, appeared in Bahrain; spreading rapidly throughout the Near East, it crossed the Bosporus into Turkey nine months later. Only tremendous and costly control operations, internationally organised, prevented its further spread.

The losses, in mortality and reduced production caused by these two epidemics in the Near East are incalculable. Livestock not only comprise the wealth of many millions of people in the region; they are also still the main means of transport and source of farm power in most of these countries. Any big epidemic must have serious effects far outside the immediate losses to livestock owners. What is known, however, is that during the 1960 epidemic Turkey lost some 20,000 horses, and Iraq over 15,000: every country from the Mediterranean to India suffered to some extent, and in Iran at least the disease appeared to have established itself, for another serious outbreak occurred there in 1963. Cost Of Disease The potential losses in the much more valuable and highly concentrated livestock population of Europe may be gathered from the fact that in 1951-52 foot-and-mouth disease alone cost European countries over £2oom. Even prevention of this disease costs many millions of pounds every year, and it is obviously to everyone’s interest to ensure against outbreaks of “new” diseases about which there is less knowledge and in controlling which there is less European experience.

Since 1962, first practical steps in this direction have been taken, with the setting up of the Near East Animal Health Institute. This is perhaps best described as a cooperative research organisation, set up with financial aid from the United Nations Special Fund, and the provision of key professional and research staff through the Food and Agriculture Organisation (F.A.0.). The N.E.A.H.I. comprises a central co-ordin-ating office in Beirut, Lebanon, with five laboratories, one of which is also at Beirut, the others being at Khartoum, Cairo, Baghdad, and in Iran. Each is responsible for research into one or more groups of diseases, as well as for training staff from all countries of the region in its special field. The Iran component of this project is sited at the Razi Research Institute, some 20 miles from Teheran, and it is this unit which is responsible' for virus diseases, including both African horse sickness and foot-and-mouth disease. Illegal Entry A common feature of the recent epidemics of these diseases in the Near East was their entry, apparently through Persian Gulf ports, on illegally imported or improperly inspected livestock from Africa, and the alarming rapidity with which they spread throughout the region. Epidemiology therefore plays a large part in the research programme in Iran, and a recent trip with the F.A.O. veterinary team gave a chance to see some of the problems and peoples. The object of this expedition (one of several being undertaken in different parts of western Iran) was twofold: to train local staff, and to try to locate potential or actual reservoirs of the viruses concerned among the livestock of the nomadic Bakhtiari tribes of the Zagros mountains. or A in small mammals or other wild life of the region.

Ahwaz, a 600-mile drive from Teheran, and situated on the plain at the head of the Persian Gulf, was the base for this expedition, and there we found the F.A.O. team, running a brief training course for veterinarians from Ahwaz province. As Dr. Olvey, leader of the team explained, “in this sort of country every vet has to be his own epidemiologist,” and the

aim was to show the local men how to recognise these “new” diseases, and collect infected material and dispatch it for detailed examination at the Razi Institute. Besides the more orthodox techniques, Dr. Olvey was demonstrating “restraint,” the art of catching these somewhat wild livestock for examination—a technique in which his former life as a cowboy in Arizona had well qualified him. At the same time, the Japanese entomologist with the team demonstrated a simple type of light-trap for catching nightflying insects suspected of carrying African horse sickness, and another trap whereby a horse or donkey could be used as live-bait for the same purpose. From Ahwaz, we drove north again, off the plain and into the barren, pale brown mountains. Our first contact with the nomads was when rounding a bend, we met a group coming southwards down the road with their sheep and goats; 50 miles farther on, 4000 feet up on a bare plateau, we came to our destination, the former oil town of Lali. Arab Stud Lost We had expected to camp, but Miss Gharazoglou, the government officer who administers these tribes, offered us hospitality in her comfortable bungalow, with a promise of help in explaining our purpose to the nomads, so that the team could examine the livestock passing through the area. Without this co-opera-tion we could accomplish little, but Miss Gharazoglou had lost all but a few of her own fine stud of Arab horses during the epidemic and well understood what the team had in mind.

Work started the following morning, with examination of the beasts in Lali village, an occasion that will long be remembered by the local children. They had already seen the extraordinary spectacle of the team’s Japanese entomologist making his way round the village with a butterfly net, expertly whisking flies off the animals and buildings. Then, while the veterinary surgeons were at work taking blood samples from donkeys (whose owners were in some cases reluctant to submit their beasts for examination) a horse brought in by a tribesman dropped dead in the village square. An immediate post-mortem examination, watched with glee by the children, revealed no signs of the diseases we were looking for, but the fact that the death of his horse might well mean the loss of its owner’s most valuable capital asset emphasised the extent to which these people depend on their animals. Finally, the children’s help was enlisted in catching mice and small birds, for examination as possible reservoirs of infection when the tribes had moved on. Traps were distributed and a scale of rewards agreed, and the village began to take part. Chain Of Infection

That afternoon, we visited a Bakhtiari encampment, out on the open plateau—a group of half-a-dozen low, black tents, or rather shelters, of coarsely woven goat-hair. As guests, we were warmly welcomed by the head of the family, while several of the younger men rode off to spread the news of the visit. All guests are given a meal, and almost as soon as we arrived, the usual small cups of tea appeared and two chickens were slaughtered, to be barbecued later over red-hot cinders.

One of the donkeys examined here was said to be the last of six that had recently

been ill. The other five had died, with symptoms which could perhaps be interpreted as those of African horse sickness. Blood samples from this animal, and from a cow which had recently recovered from foot-and-mouth disease, were a fair reward for the day’s work; they could indicate the link in the chain of infection that seems to pass through the nomadic herds right up the Iran-Iraq border into Turkey. Returning t® Lali, we found half a dozen mice and several small birds, the village children’s haul for the afternoon. Until midnight the veterinary surgeons were working in the trailer which serves as their mobile laboratory, dissecting the catch and removing vital parts for examination on their return to the Razi Institute.

It would be weeks, possibly months, before the material from even so short an expedition as this could all be examined, but its acquisition was not the team’s only objective. Every contact with these people meant a better chance of quick news of any future outbreak of disease, and improved understanding and co-operation between the veterinarians and the nomads and livestock owners.