ECTAD Indonesia and Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture Receive Award at One Health Congress 2016

FAO ECTAD Indonesia and the Directorate of Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture were awarded a prize for the Best Poster presentation during the 4th One Health and 6th Biennial Congress of the International Association for Ecology and Health (OHEH) Congress held in Melbourne, Australia, on 3-7 December 2016. 

The poster titled “Reducing the risk of HPAI H5N1 transmission to humans in live bird markets using a One Health approach by strengthening capacity and raising awareness of traders, market managers and consumers” was presented on 6 December 2016 during the daily poster exhibition. The poster featured a cross-sectoral One Health market interventions success story under the Healthy Market Programme that brought together the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, and local governments under the Ministry of Internal Affairs to reduce the risk of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 to customers and traders in live bird markets (LBM).

The main objectives of the joint programme were to improve the understanding, awareness and skills of traders and market managers to implement appropriate cleaning and disinfection activities, enhance food safety inspection and improve hygiene and good sanitary practices to reduce the risk of HPAI H5N1 virus transmission to humans associated with live poultry trading in  markets. The programme was piloted in LBM in ten districts and cities: Jakarta, Pekalongan, Sragen, Gunung Kidul, Malang, Gianyar, Mataram, Bontang, Metro and Payakumbuh.

Under the One Health framework, the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for promoting animal health, the Ministry of Health for healthy humans, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a healthy environment.  Under this premise, FAO ECTAD Indonesia and the Ministry of Agriculture focused on building the capacity of market communities on cleaning and disinfecting practices, and educating the community on the risk of HPAI H5N1 infection from live poultry trading.

Following the implementation of the programme, market communities in 10 pilot markets accepted the market interventions, thanks to intensive communication and coordination by the municipal health forum and the market task force. The programme also successfully built the capacity of 329 participants through training courses in Public Health Activities and Services Tracking (PHAST), Food Safety inspection and Cleaning and Disinfection. In addition, overall hygiene and health behaviour of market communities were improved, coupled with upgraded market hand washing facilities. The markets’ community radio stations contributed to this success through the dissemination of key messages to the market traders and customers alike. Last but not least, the programme gained support from local governments, who disbursed central and local government funds to improve market facilities and infrastructure, especially for renovating poultry vending stalls and waste treatment plants. 

The OHEH Congress, which was attended by representatives from 60 countries, saw 200 oral presentations and 700 poster presentations. FAO ECTAD Indonesia and the Directorate of Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture made two oral presentations and had eight posters accepted for presentation. 

Published: December, 2016
Project: Enhancing the capacity of the Government of Indonesia and partners to control highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) OSRO/INS/103/USA

RESOURCE:

FAO in Indonesia : http://www.fao.org/indonesia/