Southeast Asia and the European Union by Naila Maier-Knapp

Author:Naila Maier-Knapp [Maier-Knapp, Naila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, American, Asian American Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317680789
Google: rZ2QBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-09-19T05:58:03+00:00

The case of avian influenza

One year after the Bali Bombings, the Southeast Asian region witnessed another critical NTS challenge. Avian influenza broke out at the end of 2003 among poultry in the region. Many countries attempted to solve the problem by national means and concealed initial outbreaks to avoid public panic. Instead of securitisation, the affected ASEAN states relied on de-securitisation. Many governments were in a state of denial and blamed the poultry deaths on other diseases, including Newcastle disease or fowl cholera. Laos and Thailand initially claimed their outbreaks to be fowl cholera (The Nation, 20 January 2004; Agence France Press, 22 January 2004).

Many countries lacked the resources to tackle the outbreaks effectively. It took them weeks to realise and accept this before finally calling for international assistance. Thailand’s government had denied the outbreak for weeks and has admitted that it concealed the outbreak to avoid public panic (International Herald Tribune, 23 January 2004). Thailand, as the major poultry exporter to the EU and the fourth largest exporter in the world, misinformed EU Health Commissioner David Byrne, who was visiting the avian influenza-affected countries in Southeast Asia to that time. The official statement was that avian influenza did not exist in Thailand. Hence, the EU as the biggest importer of Thai poultry did not place an immediate ban on Thailand’s poultry exports (The Nation, 20 January 2004). After Byrne’s visit, Thailand admitted to the existence of avian influenza and the EU officially criticised Thailand for the lack of transparency. Interestingly, Cambodia had already restricted Thai poultry exports weeks prior to the EU Commissioner’s visit. Thailand did not only endanger the lives of its own people, but risked food safety concerns in other countries and played with the confidence of its biggest poultry market, the EU.

Vietnam has been similarly opaque in its reporting during the first few months of the outbreak, which started at the end of 2003. Epidemiologist Dr Richard Brown, head of a special outbreak response team, which has been set up jointly by the WHO and the Asian Development Bank, said to Agence France Press, “information sharing between the international community and the Vietnamese government has been less than satisfactory over the past month” (Agence France Press, 19 March 2004).

Avian influenza has been and continues to be a challenge for Southeast Asian states. The poultry industry lost billions in export and the governments incurred tremendous costs through compensation and vaccination schemes. Hundreds of people died in Southeast Asia. By 2007, Indonesia had the highest death toll in the world and the fatality rate was above 80 per cent. The death toll of Indonesia and Vietnam catapulted both countries on the top spots of the worst-affected countries in the world. On top of this, other NTS crises, including the Boxing Day Tsunami that was discussed in the Introduction, impeded the containment of the virus. Interestingly, the avian influenza threat was not expedited by the Tsunami. For example it was first detected in Aceh nearly one year after the Tsunami.

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