[This report does not necessarily reflect
the views of the United Nations]
NAIROBI, 22 Sept (IRIN) - The
first reported outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) outside of Africa, in
Saudi Arabia, has resulted in a regional ban on imported livestock from
Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya, and Djibouti.
Although the status of the ban - its length and conditions - has not been formally established, a spokesperson from the Saudi Arabian embassy in Nairobi confirmed to IRIN on Friday that it was now in force. A shipment of goats and sheep from the northern Berbera port, in the self-declared state of Somaliland, was returned by Saudi Arabia on Thursday, local humanitarian sources told IRIN.
The effect of the ban is likely to be "devastating" for countries, such as Somalia, which are heavily dependent on livestock exports to the Gulf states, a regional economic expert told IRIN. The economic impact will be compounded by a simultaneous ban in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced by the official UAE news agency on Friday. It said the UAE would stop importing cattle, sheep, goats and camels from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Nigeria.
The Saudi Arabia government this week announced emergency measures to curb the spread of the disease, which has reportedly claimed 42 lives so far, news agencies said. A statement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) said a recent outbreak of RVF in the Jizan region in southwestern Saudi Arabia was the first outside Africa. Counter measures include the rapid disposal of dead animals and intensive application of insecticides to eradicate mosquitoes and larvae, as well as public health information.
In Yemen, news agencies quoted a local health official as saying that 77 people had died of RVF, but Health minister Abdullah Abdelwali officially announced a significantly lower figure of 17, AFP said on 22 September. Strict laboratory tests are necessary to establish the viral genome and antibodies to avoid panic-attributions of deaths to RVF, humanitarian sources told IRIN.
In an information sheet on the disease, WHO says the disease primarily affects animals but "occasionally causes disease in humans". It may cause severe disease in both animals and humans, leading to high morbidity and mortality and "exacting substantial economic costs from loss of livestock".
The virus is primarily spread amongst animals by infected mosquitoes. Breeds of livestock long adapted to local conditions fare better than exotic breeds recently introduced to an endemic area, WHO said. People are infected with RVF either by infected mosquitoes or through contact with the blood, body fluids or organs of infected animals. WHO notes that the aerosol mode of transmission has also led to infection in laboratory workers. Symptoms are sudden onset of fever, headache, and muscle pain with severe cases resulting in haemorrhagic fever and death.
Economic blow
The economic impact of the ban is expected to be far-reaching, say regional experts, with Horn of Africa countries, already affected by prolonged drought, among the hardest hit. In Ethiopia, the ban will affect the Somali Region, including the Ogaden, which has been the epicentre of a regional drought. The effect on communities "is as bad as the failure of rains", humanitarian sources in Ethiopia told IRIN. It came at a time when communities in the Somali region were trying to recover from drought, by reestablishing their herds, and looking for markets, said the source.
In the Ethiopian Somali Region, a previous RVF ban issued by Saudi Arabia in 1998 (see Rift Valley Fever, IRIN archives on http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/index.phtml) forced people to build up herds that would otherwise have been exported through the northern ports of Somalia, resulting in a build-up of animals on the range. Overuse of the range results in environmental degradation and difficulty in maintaining good, healthy herds. "When the drought began to bite, it was almost certainly those animals that died", said the source.
But the 1998 ban on Ethiopia and Somalia was described by international humanitarian agencies as effectively "partial"; to a certain extent it was circumvented by trans-shipping livestock through Yemen. A 1998 Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) report noted that there was an upsurge in peak period exports to Yemen as Somali traders diverted livestock exports to other markets: "When the door is closed, try the window", observed the report. But this weeks ban is likely to have "much more serious" implications, said a business source in Addis Ababa, because of the outbreak of RVF in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and the recent UEA announcement.
Regional migration and drought
The movement of people, animals and animal products for trade is leading to an increased spread of animal diseases across national borders, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said in a statement issued from Rome on Friday. It said that "some livestock diseases have been diagnosed for the first time outside of their "normal" areas of origin, sometimes thousands of kilometres away. More than 50 people had reported dead from a RVF outbreak in Yemen, said FAO, and the Al-Hudaydah province at the western coast of Yemen had reported high abortion rates in livestock as well as numerous deaths of young calves and sheep. The affected area borders Saudi Arabia's Jizan province, where 16 people are known to have died last week, said the statement.
Regional drought in the Horn of Africa has triggered large movement of livestock across borders - which has provoked conflict in some areas, UN and humanitarian representatives have pointed out. The health effects of human and livestock migration is not known, humanitarian sources told IRIN.
Somalia
Most seriously affected by the regional ban is likely to be Somalia, a country which depends heavily on export of livestock. It lacks an established government and institutions to cope with the ban, and has very limited opportunities for economic diversification. Without a recognised central government for almost a decade, Somalia has struggled to find ways to get livestock certified for export.
The main outlet for livestock exports in through the Somaliland port of Berbera, followed by the northeastern Puntland port of Bosasso. There are a few small active ports, such as Hobiyo, Heis, Mait and Zeila, which are minor compared to the amounts shipped from the main ports. According to a 1998 FEWS report (The Livestock Embargo by Saudi Arabia: A Report on the Economic, Financial and Social Impact on Somaliland and Somalia, 31 July, 1998), livestock exports had recovered since the end of the Somali civil war and by 1998 surpassed pre-war levels from Berbera - the port of Bosasso opened on the eve of the civil war. Estimated value of livestock exports from Berbera in 1997 reached US $120.8 million, and livestock exports from Bosasso in the same year were valued at US $14.8 million, FEWS said.
This year was expected to be a "bumper year" for livestock exports from Somaliland, UN sources told IRIN. The budget by the administration of the self-declared state has grown by 25 percent to US $27 million, with US $13 million raised directly from livestock. The seriousness of the regional ban on Somaliland can be seen by the fact "nearly half the Somaliland budget is made up of livestock", said the source. The 1998 FEWS report said that Berbera was more vulnerable to a livestock ban by Saudi Arabia because "a greater proportion of its livestock exports goes there". According to FEWS/Somalia interviews with officials from the Somaliland Ministry of Livestock during the compilation of the report "about 50 percent of sheep, goats and camels originate in Ethiopia as well as 70 percent of all cattle". In comparison, most of the animals exported through Bosasso come from the Northeast or the Central Rangelands.
Authoritative Somali sources told IRIN that the ban would quickly reduce the flow of electronic goods, food, and clothing, which were obtained by exchange with livestock. Northern regions would be hit first, but would eventually affect the capital, Mogadishu. Livestock from southern Somalia will be less affected by the ban, as the civil war effectively closed the southern ports of Mogadishu, Merka and Kismayo, and forced southerners to depend more on an internal market. For export purposes, livestock from the southern areas would have to survive the long trek through the Ethiopian Ogaden to get to the main northern ports.
In the 1998 report, FEWS emphasised that a livestock ban had a direct impact on food stocks and local markets, and was expected to cause "gradual economic down-turn". Among other things, a drop in livestock exports would result in a shortfall in foreign exchange, causing the local currencies to lose value and raising the prices of imported food products in terms of local currencies, said the report.
According to one Somali livestock expert, the ban "reflects not just on export quality but also on local markets and the environment. It will result in the over-production of herds, without the usual market outlet, which will cause environmental damage".
Somali sources told IRIN that there was an urgent need for international agencies to assist by helping to establish systems to "investigate the health of animals". The source said there were also "hopes that the newly elected president would talk about it and get something done effectively".
Nairobi, 22 September 2000
[ENDS]
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