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30th, Arab Veterinary Medical Congress
Cairo-Egypy 12th,to14th, May 2014 |
Illegal Transboundary Animal Trade (ITAT)
Talib Murad Ali Elam***.
The bull, (Fig.1), was photographed in a
livestock market in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq and,
along with thousands of others in livestock markets throughout Iraq it was sold
for slaughter. Anyone who has knowledge of cattle will recognize that these
cattle have originated from India, if not from Pakistan, and this animal. This
bull and the other cattle in the market that day had been smuggled over 3,000
Km through Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran to reach Erbil the Capital of
Kurdistan Regional Government-KRG.
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| Fig: 1 |
This form of Illegal Transboundary Animal Trade
(ITAT) is on the increase and is becoming a trend in the Middle East and North
and East Africa. It is becoming more and more difficult to control
Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) as countries within the region have gone
through political and social upheaval and, while ITAT is widely and openly
practiced, the situation will undoubtedly make the control of Transboundary
Animal Diseases (TADs) impossible. This is a recipe for disaster that will facilitate
the spread of zoonotic diseases( spread from animal to human) thereby endangering
human lives especially in the poorer segments of the communities.
Apart from the smuggling of live animals into
the region, transboundary smuggling of meat (red and white) has been, and still
is, widely practiced by unscrupulous meat traders in association with corrupt
custom officials
( Fig.2). Smuggled meat can be a source of disease spread to both animals
and humans and in addition there are the risks posed to consumers by the
chemicals that are used to improve the appearance of the meat.
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| Fig: 2 ( Not my Camera) |
It is not an easy task to control this illicit
trade when we are heading towards more open trade across our borders and meat
prices are increasing daily and veterinary and custom services are under
constant pressure to do so. Last year countries in Europe, where border control
is very stringent, were shocked to discover illegal meat in their food chain. One
wonders how beef, mixed with illegal horse meat, got past the EU’s well
established veterinary services and border controls allowing the horse meat,
that originated in Romania, to be mixed with beef and used to produce meat products and meals in supermarkets throughout
Europe. This occurred when meat moved across borders had seemingly correct
paperwork accompanying it and it was random DNA testing that revealed the
problem. This illegal trade took place through channels that were to all
intensive purposes legal so what could be smuggled illegally? What chance do we have to control such
malpractice with the weak veterinary services we have in the region and border
custom officers who are used to turning a blind eye? It is already a lost
battle.
A few years ago the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) announced that
Rinderpest (Cattle plague) was officially eradicated, and they promised to keep
Rinderpest consigned forever to the history books and the annals of veterinary
medicine. This was an historic announcement as this was the first animal
disease that had been “eradicated”.
We are all aware that in the past twenty years the last foci of Rinderpest
infection involved wild buffalo and cattle in East Africa and Pakistan.
Rinderpest has been one of the most problematical animal diseases to control
and, endogenous to Africa, and it proved hard to eradicate it there. Indeed in
the late 1980s Rinderpest played a role in the demise of the government in
Somalia. The Somalia livestock sector was a vital source of revenue to the
country and the sale of Somali cattle to Saudi Arabia used to generate nearly
300 million dollars but the trade stopped immediately when rinderpest was
discovered in animals imported into KSA. This was a body blow to a government
already under threat and the loss of this revenue was a death blow to Siad
Barre’s government. Meanwhile the decades of vaccination campaigns had resulted
in a weakening of the virus to a degree that it had become impossible to
observe it clinically.
In 1989 - 90 I
was involved in the management of a large, EU financed, Pan African Rinderpest
Campaign (PARC) to vaccinate the large herds of nomadic cattle in Somalia
against the virus. The PARC campaign was misused from day one by the Somali
government officials and then the outbreak of civil war put an abrupt end to
the project and nothing was achieved. Instead the PARC campaign provided Italian
cars for the officials of Siad Barri’s regime in its last year in power and following
the fall of the regime in 1991 the few dozen yellow Landrovers that had been
used by PARC became the ‘chariots’ of Somali warlords. Years later I was
surprised to read that the Pan African Rinderpest Campagin (PARC) was described
as a success!
The Lomé Convention is a trade and
aid agreement between the European Community (EC) and 71 African,
Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, signed in February 1975 in Lomé, Togo. This form of aid is different from the UN aid programs
and, while UN programs have their faults, yet in my experience programs under
the Lome agreement were worse. The Lome Convention allows a government and its
officials to have full control over the equipment and goods of a project or
purchasing such items for use in projects. This is a good Idea but in real
terms it was a blank cheque for officials to legally line their pockets or
purchase what they wanted.
A.
THERE ARE MANY FACTORS CAUSING “ITAT”.
1.
The Animal Production Sector is weak in the Region.
Animal
Production in the Near East is constantly under pressure from natural
occurrences such as drought but also man-made factors increase pressure
further. In my experience, and not
considering Turkey and Iran, the countries within the region are capable of
producing around 25% of the red meat they require. This necessitates the
purchase of animal feed from outside the region. The majority of countries
claim to be self sufficient in poultry meat yet the fact that they import the
required poultry feed and equipment tends to be overlooked. The ability of the
sector to provide sufficient animal protein to meet the needs of the population
is diminishing due to many factors including:
·
The ever increasing population of the region.
We are all aware that our human population in
the region is increasing at an alarming rate. In addition meat is regarded as
the main constituent of a meal and Meat consumption per capita is markedly
higher now that it was before the explosion of petrol dollars. So much more
meat is now consumed by a wealthier section of the population that the
incidence high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes and heart disease are increasing
in the younger generation. Countries within the region struggle to provide meat
for their endogenous (local) population yet some also have a large population
of expatriates. In the Gulf States the ratio of foreign to local population is
several fold and in Qatar there are 8 foreigners to every local person. It is
well known that while ex-patriates consume lamb from sheep imported from
Australia and New Zealand the local population prefer to eat the expensive meat
from fat-tail sheep. This means that the Gulf States can only hope to provide
sufficient fat-tail meat by seeking supplies from within the region. Some
states have resorted to land-grab as far afield as Australia in order to gain
pasture suitable for flocks of fat-tail breeds. In addition the ready market in
the Gulf entices illegal trade and the result is that the extent of the trade
and the variety of sources forms an opportunity for spread of transboundary
diseases.
·
The shrinking of traditional pasture land.
While there are few, if any, statistics
available on the loss of traditional pastureland it has been estimated that
over the last 60 years the region has lost 50% of the natural pasture that was
essential in raising the herds of small ruminants that provided the preferred
red meat within the region. This loss of pasture is the result of drought,
increased desertification and man-made activities such as oil and gas
exploration, air ports, urbanization etc.
· Recurrent drought in the region.
Drought has been a natural occurrence in the
region from ancient times and is referred to in all our holy books. We cannot
stop this drought but, like generations before us, we need to constantly be
aware of the threat and prepare for it. Drought affects livestock first and
when drought occurs the sale of livestock increases as owners cannot afford to
provide for them. As a result sale prices drop as does the condition of the
animals and there is an increased risk of ITAT but also that the livestock that
is moved across borders may be carrying disease. While the failure of seasonal
rains leads to drought the threat is intensified in those countries such as
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria where the source of the country’s rivers is
outside its borders. Increasingly we see upstream countries, e.g. Turkey,
Ethiopia, Syria and Iran erecting dams across rivers and the consequent
reduction of the downstream flow. This puts increased demand on other water
sources with the result that ground water supplies are severely threatened and
salinity can increase. The problem is further intensified by the popular
concept of leisure farming. All too frequently we see people acquiring a plot
of land on which they construct a house and dig a well with the ‘intention’ of
being self sufficient. However the end result is the loss of further
irreplaceable ground water and further drop in the water table. In addition
some of the owners of these wells now sell water!
· The changing of villages from production
units to consumers.
It is not so long ago that a village in Iraq,
Egypt or elsewhere within the region was a place where any visitor saw evidence
of livestock and food production. I have seen countless such villages in
throughout the Middle East all of which were self sufficient and the excess
poultry, meat, cheese and yogurt they produced was sold in local towns. Each
village was a producing unit but now the majority of villages have become
consumers and where poultry and goats may have fed we see plastic refuse and
evidence of legal, and illegal, imported food. There is a reduction in the
number of young people in villages as they are attracted to life in towns and
cities and skills and knowledge of livestock production and its accompanying
trades, that were passed from generation to generation, are consequently lost.
· Religious Festivals (Ramadan & Eid El
Adha).
Our festivities have a marked demand on our
livestock. We slaughter animals not only for the main religious festivals but
for weddings, funerals, purchase of a house or car, visit of a family member or
friend and during Ramadan, when we should be fasting, our meat consumption
increases three fold while its cost also rises. Our livestock production cannot
meet such a demand so the trade in livestock and meat imports rises and of
course the illegal trade flourishes. It has been estimated that over 10 to 15
million ruminants are slaughtered throughout the Arab world within the first
few hours of the first day of Eid El Adha. This estimate is conservative and in
KSA alone 2.5 million animals are slaughtered. Can illegal trade be stopped
when there is such a demand?
· Frequent outbreaks of Transboundary
Animal Diseases (TADs)
Remedying the first five factors, and indeed
others, falls to a certain extent within the duties of the individual states,
but control of TADs is without doubt a regional problem and involves
neighbouring states. It is both a moral duty and an obligation of all states
involved to work together to control, and prevent, these situations.
2. The Rates of Currency Exchange and Livestock Smuggling.
The difference in currency exchange rates of
the poorer countries within the region is the main factor for ITAT. As a
consultant, representative and regional livestock officer for FAO in the Near
East countries for a quarter of a century I have seen the effect that
differences in currency exchange can make. In the late 1980s I witnessed the great crash
of the Somali shilling during the last two years of Siad Bari’s regime followed
by six years of civil strife. On my arrival in that unfortunate country a
single US dollar used to fetch 25 Somali shillings, by the time I left eight
years later the same dollar bill was fetching 14,000 SS. With no governmental
control of exports, the illegal exportation of livestock to the Gulf States was
taking place in all the Somali ports as people endeavoured to secure viable
hard currency (Fig.3). I have seen similar occurrences in Afghanistan
where, during the rule of the Taliban one dollar US was worth 800 Afghani and
resulted in an increase in the smuggling of all forms of livestock from Afghanistan
into Pakistan, Iran and the countries of the north. Indeed the trade was open
to anyone. Within a few months of the overthrow of the Taliban regime the
reverse took place and I saw livestock smuggling from Pakistan into Afghanistan
as one US dollar was then equivalent to 400 Afghani.
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| Fig: 3 Kismayo- South Somalia 1995 |
In the latter years of Saddam’s reign livestock
was smuggled into Iran where the currency rate was good compared to the weak
Iraqi dinar. I saw many Iraqi traders with their livestock in the markets of
Iran at that time and following the fall of Saddam’s regime there was a
tremendous improvement in the Iraqi currency. This improvement in Iraq’s
currency has now resulted in the smugglers moving animals and meat into Iraq
across its borders with Iran and also Turkey. The veterinary services in
Baghdad and Erbil accuse the neighbouring countries for the introduction of
Lumpy Skin disease (LS), Foot and mouth disease (FMD) and Crimean Congo
haemorrhagic fever (CCHF). Indeed as I was preparing this article I read a
Pro-Med circular regarding the death of a cattle owner in Turkey who died from
CCHF.In raq it is common knowledge that animal smuggling takes place and the
problem is too great for the countries veterinary services.
In 1984 I was on a FAO mission to the Hadramout
valley of South Yemen. There I routinely saw large pickups laden with Thmudi
goats travelling on their way through the desert to the United Arab Emirate
where the flesh of these animals was greatly appreciated. Indeed some of the
goats may have been smuggled as far as KSA. When I think of this I regret that
today’s mobile phones with integral cameras had not been invented then.
However in 2002 I was able to photograph water
buffalo in a livestock market in Heart, Afghanistan (Fig.4), a country
not known to produce these animals. The water buffalo were en route from
Pakistan to the more lucrative markets in Iran and some may well have reached
the borders of Iraq. Even more surprising was that some butchers were also
selling buffalo meat to Afghanis who had lived in Pakistan and developed a
taste for the meat.
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| Fig:4. Herat region-Afghanistan-2001 |
3. Political
Pressure on the Veterinary Services
Although the region’s countries are not capable
of meeting the normal demand for meat the increased demand that occurs during
Ramadan and the Eid results in the veterinary services coming under great
pressure from politicians to meet the rise in demand at that time. This
pressure can be so great that there are some officials who turn a blind eye to
some of the trade taking place in order to relieve the pressure they are under.
No officials have been prosecuted or removed from office as they have been
doing what was required of them! The number of countries that are free of
notifiable animal diseases has been halved in recent years so it is a logical
deduction that as the sources of legal imports have been reduced smuggling must
be making up the shortfall in supply. Perhaps we should regard it that
smuggling livestock to meet the demands of the population has become a norm
within the region.
4. Civil Strife.
Civil strife results in livestock owners moving
animals to safer areas. In Somali the nomadic herds were moved as a result of
tribal fighting and in the widespread civil strife the herds were moved into
the surrounding countries. This movement was illegal but took place along the
country’s borders. In Iraq water buffalo from the marshes of the south were
moved into Iran
5.
Certification and the lack of
laboratories
The region has a large number of veterinarians
and veterinary colleges yet
the livestock unit allocated per veterinarian
is very low in comparison to that in the western world. However there is a lack
of modern laboratory facilities and basic training programs for personnel in
infectious diseases and meat quality control in order to face the challenge of
we face in establishing and maintaining secure monitoring and control systems
against the threat of TADs and safe meat supplies. Training courses for both veterinarians
and the veterinary facilities should be critically reviewed and upgraded as
necessary to ensure that we can deal with the threat the region faces.
B.
HOW CAN WE STOP OR REDUCE THIS ILLEGAL
TRADE IN OUR REGION
The region would benefit from the establishment
of a regional commission with the aim to oversee a regional, coordinated system
to control trade in livestock movements and the spread of zoonotic and
infectious diseases in the region. Similar commissions exist in South America,
South East Asia, Europe and Africa and the benefits of a coordinated system
have been demonstrated.
In
October 1967 the 49th, FAO Council adopted a resolution (3/49) to
establish a Commission for Animal Health in the Near East Region to be based in
Cairo. This resolution was passed some
47 years ago and yet we are still without a commission.
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***The article was written for the 30th,
Arab Veterinary Conference
Cairo-Egypt, 12th to 14th May 2014
