The Sea Turtle Story of Orissa

Tehelka 8 Apr 08;

Despite an inflow of funds and much media attention, turtle mortality in Orissa has reached unprecedented proportions. More needs to be done, says BIBHUTI PATI

Turtle mortalities have skyrocketed in Orissa, making it the worst season for the turtles, in the last eight years. In the Paradip to Chilika stretch, the mortality stands at 4,495 until February 2008, a shocking 80% increase when compared to the previous seven seasons.

A crisis has emerged, even as the Government of Orissa received over Rs. 3 crores from the centre for the maintenance of its parks and sanctuaries to protect wildlife. Further, there is no sign of the patrolling necessary to curb illegal fishing, the main cause of turtle mortality.

Every year, between November and May, the coast of Orissa is home to the Olive Ridley Turtles, which arrive in thousands, congregating, feeding and breeding in the near shore waters. Thousands of these turtles then head to one of the mass-nesting beaches, at Gahirmatha, Rushikulya or Devi to lay their eggs. The cycle is complete when 40-50 days later, hatchlings emerge from these eggs and head to sea, keeping intact and alive, the story of an ecological marvel.

Orissa should be ashamed that its beaches have metamorphosed into turtle grave yards. The mortality toll has crossed 120,000 in the last 12 years, according to independent estimates. These turtles face the gravest threat is from the fishing trawlers, largely operating illegally in ‘no-fishing’ zones. Looming large are also the existing and proposed development projects and industrial activities along Orissa’s coast, that could prove to be a death knell for this species, the coastal ecosystem and the communities that depend on fisheries for their sustenance.

The issue is complex. Along with the turtles, thousands of traditional fisherfolk, who are dependent on the marine resources, find themselves in peril. Restricting fishing in certain areas has obviously affected the livelihood of thousands from the traditional fishing community, many of whom are already poverty-stricken. Fishermen from the traditional sector are already experiencing declining catches, primarily a result of over-fishing. Along with the turtles, these fishermen suffer as the near-shore waters, their traditional fishing grounds, are encroached upon by the mechanised trawling industry. If not for the protection of the turtles, patrolling the near shore waters is critical to safeguard the livelihoods of these impoverished communities.

While this decade-old conflict seems hard to resolve, there are solutions in sight. The forest and fisheries departments have always faced the problem of a lack of resources, while the absence of any compensation for the restrictions imposed on their fishing has always been a sore point with traditional fishing communities. In an attempt to look at the issue holistically, NGOs such as Greenpeace have come up with their own estimates of the budgetary resources required to resolve this issue. The estimate was for an allocation of about Rs. 2 crores to the Department of Forests (Wildlife) to ensure improved marine patrolling and turtle protection. An estimated 9 crores is also required annually for the compensation of traditional fishermen affected by fishing restrictions.
In August 2007, following a meeting between Orissa Chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy and Union Environment secretary Meena Gupta, an amount of Rs. 2 crores was to be disbursed to Orissa by the Centre, specifically towards the purchase of fast patrol boats to protect the turtles.

In November 2007, the forest and environment department of the Government of Orissa received Rs. 9.17 Crores from the Centre, of which Rs. 3.18 crores was earmarked for the development of national parks and sanctuaries. Ironically, even as the critical financial roadblock to effective patrolling was overcome, turtle mortality in the current season (2007-2008) has dramatically increased. As per Greenpeace estimates, mortality has shot up by over 80% in the Paradip–Chilika region, when compared to the previous four seasons.

What has happened to the resources acquired by the state government from the Centre for turtle conservation? What are the mechanisms to ensure that these resources are utilised appropriately and optimally?

Speaking to TEHELKA, Sanjiv Gopal, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace India said “It is shocking that the turtle toll until February 2008 is over 4000 in the Paradip–Chilika stretch, an 80 percent increase from the average for the previous four turtle seasons. While reducing mortality to zero might not be practical, the Government of Orissa must demonstrate its commitment to protecting its turtles, by setting itself annual turtle mortality reduction targets. It must start with what is left of this turtle season. This benchmark would enable the government’s turtle protection efforts to be evaluated in an objective manner”.

On the issue of compensation for traditional fishermen, the Government of India has assured its support for alternative livelihood income generation schemes drawn up by the State Government. However, such a scheme has yet to be forwarded from the state to the Centre, an indictment of the degree of concern the state has for its fishing community. Commenting on the situation, Tapan Parida, Secretary of the Peer Jahania Traditional Fishermen’s Union from the Devi region said “It is important that the near shore waters are patrolled effectively, to protect both the turtles and our fishing grounds from the larger mechanised sector and trawlers. We are tired of waiting for the issue of our livelihoods to be addressed, either through compensation of lost income or by through alternative income generation schemes.

None of these solutions are new. As per the Orissa Marine Fisheries Regulation Act (OMFRA), near-shore waters up to 5 km from the shoreline are exclusively reserved for traditional fishers. Similarly the Central Empowered Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, has placed no restrictions on non-motorised, non-mechanised fishing vessels at the Devi and Rushikulya nesting sites, as such fishing rarely harms turtles. Motorised boats are required to stay more than 5 kms from the shore near the Devi and Rushikulya nesting sites, while trawlers are to stay 20 km from the shore. If implemented, the 5 km near-shore waters would be exclusively preserved for the smallest, poorest fishermen, while the waters between 5 and 20 km. would be available for non-trawl motorised vessels.
Biswajit Mohanty, Secretary of Wildlife Society of Orissa and Coordinator of Operation Kachhapa, who has been following the issue for over a decade, said, “The legislative frameworks exists and resources are available. The Government of Orissa is running out of excuses and they continue to fail abjectly in their responsibility to protect Orissa’s turtles. The question is simple – does the state government value Orissa’s turtles enough?”

If the answer is yes, it has no excuse not to act. Against this grim background, a sliver of hope remains with the recent arribada at Rushikulya in the beginning of March this year, a hope that these turtles will continue to congregate in these waters.

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Reef fish face extinction as many end up on dinner tables

Tan Cheng Li, The Star 8 Apr 08;

The Asian craving for a particular reef fish is emptying our seas.

HUNDREDS of fish cages bob up and down in the waters of Marudu Bay, off Kudat in Sabah. In these cages are sought-after marine delicacies such as groupers, lobsters and crabs, as well as a staggering number of humphead wrasses.

From the massive number of humpheads holed up in the floating pens, it is impossible to tell that this is a fish species classed as “endangered” by the IUCN-World Conservation Union and whose trade is governed by the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

In Kudat, like in the Sabahan coastal towns of Tawau, Sandakan and Lahad Datu, fishermen continue to haul in humpheads (Cheilinus undulatus). Several times a week, these fish and the popular groupers, are bundled alive into air-filled plastic bags which are then packed into polystyrene boxes, transported to Kota Kinabalu, and sent on the evening flight to Hong Kong or Singapore. It is a time-perfected technique which gets seafood, alive and swimming, into restaurants.

Sabah exported 27,000 tails of humphead last year – an alarming figure since scientists believe wild humphead stocks in Sabah waters are almost exhausted and aggressive fishing can only doom the species.

Once a normal table fish, humpheads (or su mei) somehow acquired a luxury tag in the early 1990s. Those who want to flaunt their wealth and success would indulge in this pricey fish in restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Malaysia. What used to sell for RM30 a kg in 1980 now goes for RM250 to RM300 a kg. Soon a scramble for the fish ensued.

Before long, fears of over-fishing pushed humpheads onto Appendix II of Cites in October 2004 – the first coral reef fish to be listed. Everyone thought all would be well since trade would now be controlled through import and export permits.

On the contrary, the Cites listing has done little for humpheads in Sabah as trade quotas remain high. Many are stumped by the export ration set by Sabah Fisheries Department last February – a monthly 200 tails for each of the 19 exporters. This works out to 45,600 tails annually, a figure deemed excessive by many, considering that it is five times Indonesia’s annual quota of 8,900 tails.

“There is concern over how the export quota was set as the amount of humphead wrasse exported last year is even higher than that before the Cites listing,” says Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA) senior researcher Tan Kim Hooi, who has written a policy document on humphead wrasse fisheries.

Doubts also arose over the scientific rationale behind the quota. A Cites Appendix II listing requires a non-detrimental finding (NDF) study to determine that trade will not threaten survival of the species. This study is only now being done.

Sabah Fisheries, World Wide Fund for Nature and wildlife trade monitoring body, Traffic, are assessing wild humphead populations in Pulau Lankayan, Kudat and Semporna. They are expected to recommend a new export quota when the present one expires in June.

Dwindling stocks

There are already signs that Asians’ taste for steamed su mei is depleting wild stocks.

“Sabah’s export of the high-value fish last year, although high, was just over half of the allowable quota. This can mean two things – either humphead populations are not really that big or the species has been over-fished,” says Tan.

Also, Sabahan fishermen and traders all tell the same tale about the fish they call mameng: the catch has dropped as have fish sizes, when compared to the 90s.

“Ten years ago, I can get several fish of 10kg to 15kg in a week. Now, not even one in a month,” says Kudat fish trader Wong Sin Hin. Today, the harvest is mostly juvenile fish which have to be fattened up in pens over three months or more, to reach the preferred plate size of 500g to 1kg (about 30-40cm in length) before shipment.

Marine scientist Dr Steve Oakley warns that netting young fish before they have had a chance to breed will curtail future stocks of the species. Insisting on size restrictions for humphead harvests, he says breeding adult fish should be left in the sea. Better yet, he adds, humphead fisheries should be closed until it can be proven sustainable.

Oakley, whose group the Tropical Research And Conservation Centre (Tracc) has surveyed reefs in Sabah and Sarawak, believes humpheads are locally extinct over most of the South China Sea. Viable breeding populations exist in two islands protected by dive tourism: Sipadan and Layang-Layang. Another healthy group exists off Brunei – but only because it is within the Champion oil field, a protected “no fishing” zone. Tracc surveys of Layang-Layang between 1996 and 2002 found a big humphead population of 300 females, 21 males and 100 sub-adults. However, the fish were not seen last year. The reason, Oakley fears, could be because a Chinese vessel was allowed to fish there.

For now, Sabah’s humphead catch figures remain impressive only because stocks are coming from the Philippines, which does not trade in the fish. Traders and fishermen in Kudat attest to this and the fact that Filipino fishers use cyanide to stun the fish, a destructive fishing method that can kill them as well as harm other marine life and the fragile coral reef habitat.

Lax enforcement, together with difficulties in patrolling Sabah’s 1,600km of coastline and extensive fishing area of 51,360 sq km, share the blame for the prevalent fish smuggling.

As humpheads from foreign waters are traded as Sabah’s, Tan of Mima says a generous export quota will deplete humphead stocks not only in Malaysian waters, but also in Indonesia and the Philippines. Already, high demand and lucrative prices have fuelled poaching.

In December 2006, a Chinese vessel was detained at Tubbataha Marine Park in Palawan, the Philippines, with 800 live fish onboard, including 300 humpheads. In the same year, the Bunaken Marine Park in northern Sulawesi saw three cases of poaching involving 207, 450 and 36 humpheads.

Indonesia had set an annual export of 8,000 tails in 2005 but revised it to 8,900 tails last year, and only allows harvest from specified areas, namely Papua, Maluku and Nusa Tenggara.

Over-dining

But high exports of humpheads is not the only concern. Equally worrying is their being eaten in large numbers in local restaurants. Chinese and Hong Kong tourists to Sabah routinely feast on su mei as it is cheaper than back home.

Cites, however, only regulates international trade of wildlife. At the airport in Kota Kinabalu, frozen humpheads are going for RM75 a kg. The sales personnel look puzzled when asked about the need for Cites permits.

To curb local consumption, Oakley wants national and state rules tightened to bar humphead fishing and give it the protected status that it needs.

“Humpheads are even more endangered than orang utans because there are more orang utans in Sabah forests than humpheads in its waters. But you can still eat the fish in a KK (Kota Kinabalu) restaurant. We are decimating this species for a poor reason ... merely to put a fish on the table.”

He adds that humpheads, being a major draw of the dive industry in Seychelles and Maldives, are totally protected there. “Malaysia needs to realise that tourists bring in more money than selling the last few humpheads would.”

Apart from harvest restrains, marine sanctuaries can further raise hope for humpheads. “With these protected areas, you will guard the habitat not only for humpheads but for other marine species too,” says WWF marine scientist Dr Annadel Salvio Cabanban.

She says the recent survey of Pulau Lankayan off Sandakan, a popular dive destination, uncovered 23 juvenile humpheads, with the largest one measuring 25cm. “With long-term protection of Lankayan, we might get a breeding population there in 20 years’ time.” And because humphead larvae travel with ocean currents, Cabanban says those produced in other protected areas might reach our waters. So she is hopeful for the species if more such sites are found.

Protection efforts should also not ignore seagrass beds and mangroves as both are important habitats for humpheads, serving as nursery ground for many reef fish. It is also crucial to safeguard the humphead’s breeding grounds. Humpheads display aggregate spawning behaviour by gathering at specific sites to breed. Fishermen can target such sites, so Mima researcher Siti Nazatul Izura Mohd Ishak recommends that they be documented and managed, such as by having a closed season during spawning period.

To safeguard humphead trade, Sabah Fisheries has held several workshops to inform traders about the risks of over-fishing and Cites requirements. Come July, a new – and most likely lower – export quota is expected. But are there enough humpheads left in the wild to repopulate our reefs? In the end, the fate of this fish hangs on just one simple gesture from people – don’t order su mei for dinner.

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Balam Road residents get their footpath back, with new eco-friendly features

Green again
Nazry Bahrawi, Today Online 8 Apr 08;

THEIR scenic footpath along Pelton Canal was removed because of the construction of the Circle Line, but residents at Balam Road can now look forward to something more — Singapore's first eco-garden.

Construction on this pilot project will begin later this year, Dr Fatimah Lateef, MP for Marine Parade GRC, said yesterday.

"It will have mechanisms that trap rainwater which will later be redirected to nourish plants in that area during hot periods," Dr Fatimah told reporters, adding that the scenic path would be reinstated, along with a new cycling track.

Another feature: "Resilient" plants that will trap debris during rain, thereby releasing dirt-free water into the canal, said a spokesperson from the Marine Parade Town Council.

The Pelton Canal reconstruction is a multi-agency effort involving not just the Marine Parade Town Council, but also the Housing Development Board, the Public Utilities Board, the National Parks Board, and the Geylang Serai grassroots division.

The idea for an eco-garden was based on feedback that grassroots leaders had gathered from residents during MP meet-the-people sessions, house-to-house visits and community events.

According to Ms Jessie Foo, Balam Road's Residents Committee chairman in charge of gathering feedback, more than 80 per cent of the residents she approached in January told her they wanted a cleaner canal.

The transformation of Geylang Serai is not just physical, but also people-centric.

According to Dr Fatimah, there are plans to launch a Local Elderly Network by next year with programmes such as massage and music therapies. The elderly forms about a fifth of the nearly 39,000 residents in Geylang Serai, said Dr Fatimah.

Other unique community outreach programmes in the constituency include the Grassroots Resource Network, which connects grassroots leaders to their retired predecessors and other professionals, as well as the Psychology Outreach Programme, which helps mentally-ill residents.

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Mini pavement gardening brings Seletar Hills West residents together

FRIENDSHIP in this estate is BLOOMING
Genevieve Jiang, New Paper 8 Apr 08;

SHE did not know any of her neighbours, but that did not stop Mrs Chew Swee Liang from going door to door trying to convince them to transform the drab, grey pavements outside their homes into blooming gardens.

The 72-year-old retired physiotherapist gathered more than 170 signatures of support from residents living along Mimosa Crescent, where she lives, and the nearby Nim Road and Neram Crescent in the Seletar Hills West estate.

That was three years ago.

Today, the estate - made up mostly of bungalows - boasts colourful roadside gardens.

And the residents have not just beautified the neighbourhood, they have found friends.

Mrs Chew said: 'I have lived here for close to 11 years, and only said 'Hi' and 'Bye' to my next-door neighbour.

'It wasn't until three years ago, when this project was started, that residents along the entire road started to interact.

'And today, we're a community of best friends.'

The project started in June 2005 after Mrs Chew was inspired by reports about the Mayfair Park estate, where residents had been growing vegetables on a small plot of land.

The cracked pavements outside her home also spurred her into action.

Mrs Chew said: 'I found the cracked pavements a bit of an eyesore and thought, when the authorities start repairing them, why not create some space for mini pavement gardens at the same time?'

AUTHORITIES LEND A HAND

So she met with her Member of Parliament, Dr Balaji Sadasivan, and sought the approval of the Seletar Hills West Neighbourhood Committee.

She called The National Parks Board (NParks), and it advised her to seek the approval of her neighbours.

She distributed fliers. But at the start, only three residents responded.

So she went door to door and managed to convince more than 30 households along Mimosa Crescent to agree.

Mrs Chew also liaised with the Land Transport Authority to allow sunken plots called 'planters', measuring 1m-by-4m, on the pavements.

NParks then spread topsoil over the plots.

The residents went to work, and five months later, slabs of grey concrete were replaced by lush greenery and bright flowers.

That same year, Mrs Chew and her neighbours took part in the NParks' inaugural Community In Bloom (CIB) Awards, where prizes were given to estates and schools with the best gardens.

They were awarded a certificate of accomplishment.

After that, Mrs Chew and her neighbours roped in more residents at Nim Road and Neram Crescent.

The project has since snowballed.

Today, four roads - more than 170 households - are involved in the project.

In 2006, the group came in second in the CIB awards. Last year, they clinched two golds and a bronze at the NParks' Gardener's Pride contest.

They have even extended their gardening efforts to the nearby Mimosa Park. And now, Mrs Chew hopes to spread the gardening bug to all 35 roads throughout Seletar Hills West.

Over the past three years, the residents' shared passion for gardening has also allowed their 'kampung spirit' to blossom.

Mrs Louisa Ng, a retiree in her 60s, who has been living along Saraca Road for 17 years, said: 'In the past three years, we've grown so close that we have meals together and exercise together almost every other day.'

And it is common for neighbours to visit each other whenever one of them falls ill.

When Mrs Ng's granddaughter sprained her ankle last year, Mrs Chew helped massage the girl and gave her tips on how to get better.

Another resident, Mrs Rena Li, 62, who runs her own business, said: 'A few days ago, my mother-in-law fell and had a bump on her head.

'I immediately called Mrs Chew for advice on how to bring down the swelling.

'It is true that in times of emergency, your neighbours are more important than your relatives. I have no doubt that my neighbours will stand by me when I need help.'

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Alexandra Hospital's winged beauties

Matthew Phan, Business Times 8 Apr 08;

IT'S a magical place where photographers gather at weekends to snap some of Singapore's rarest and most beautiful creatures.

The butterfly trail at Alexandra Hospital is Singapore's biggest open-concept butterfly garden, with more than 100 different species sighted. They include the Common Birdwing, a bright yellow and black butterfly with a wingspan of over 15 cm, which the hospital has contributed to the Istana and the Botanic Gardens.

Unlike at Sentosa there are no nets at Alexandra Hospital to keep the butterflies in - they are free to come and go as they wish.

The trick to keeping them around, says caretaker Rosalind Tan, who was chief occupational therapist at the hospital before she retired two years ago, is to grow the right plants.

The Common Birdwing, for example, may have arrived from Malaysia, flitting from green space to green space until it found the gardens from their scent, she says.

Alexandra Hospital's gardens, which collectively stretch over the size of two football fields, have at least 500 species of trees and shrubs, including some 200 butterfly shrubs. The latter are fruit trees or flowering plants that mature butterflies obtain nectar from and hosts where they lay eggs.

Each species of butterfly may feed from several plants, but its caterpillar will eat only one particular host plant, says Ms Tan. Many of these are common fruit trees such as mango, guava or banana, but there are also several weeds, such as the common snakeweed, tyler flora and stinking passion flower.

'You couldn't buy them from a nursery if you wanted to,' says Ms Tan, who obtained plant samples from the forest or from friends and cultivated them in her own garden before transplanting them in the hospital grounds.

Other plants are brought by birds, such as the mistletoe, which grows on trees but not on the ground. It hosts the Painted Jezebel, a pretty white-yellow-and-red winged butterfly that 'just appeared', she says.

Alexandra Hospital started the garden in 2002 when it decided to plant shrubs along a big drain at the edge of the hospital grounds, a 'no man's land' at the time.

Today, caterpillar host plants are grown near the drain so patients do not see them, while the flowering plants are kept nearer the hospital so butterflies flit to the peopled areas.

Ms Tan is also working with conservation biologist Ho Hua Chew to design wetlands and grasslands at the back of the hospital, to attract birds. Some 60-plus bird species have already been sighted and she is aiming for more than 100.

But her consultants on the butterfly garden were simply amateur enthusiasts, such as the Butterfly Circle, and books, she says.

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Jurong 'Lake District' should be eco-friendly

Letter from Poh Wei Leong, Straits Times Forum 8 Apr 08;

I REFER to last Saturday's article, 'Jurong's massive make-over', in which Jurong is slated to be developed into a regional business hub, to be dubbed 'Jurong Lake District'.

I applaud the Government for yet another effort to decentralise business centres so commuting time will be reduced. At the same time, I appeal to the planning authorities to use this opportunity to infuse sustainable concepts into this project.

We hear of Singapore co-operating with China to build eco-cities. And we know many landscape and architectural planners no longer have the criterion of aesthetics as their key focus. Designing a city that is liveable, lively and 'alive', so it can exist sustainably by adopting environment-friendly eco-principles, is now a calling for these planners.

We have seen the price of oil rocket. And we have read how consumers' tastes in public projects have changed to allow projects that are socially and environmentally responsible. Many would thus agree that cost savings will be higher if the Jurong Lake District is intelligently designed from the beginning to be sustainable, rather than introducing corrective measures when pressure to do so, for what-ever reason, is applied.

Let's walk the talk about building eco-cities here. No doubt it is a huge challenge, but if planners cannot do it now, then they won't know how to do it in the near future - when sustainability becomes an absolute necessity.

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Meat the culprit in food shortage

Letter from George Jacobs, President, Vegetarian Society (Singapore)
Straits Times Forum 8 Apr 08;

I REFER to Saturday's special report, 'Food shortage causes world eating disorder'. The current food shortage results from a complex combination of causes, and meat production is one of them.

Currently, we 6.6 billion humans eat more than 50 billion of our fellow land animals annually. These other animals consume more food than the entire human population, not to mention the inputs of water, pesticides and energy involved in meat production or the huge quantity of waste products, including greenhouse gases that these creatures produce during their unnatural and short lives.

Meat eating is indeed grossly wasteful of the crops we grow and of the resources required to grow those crops. For instance, more than 10kg of plant food is required to produce just 1kg of beef. Thus, a readily available way to address our current food shortage is to reduce our meat consumption or stop eating meat entirely. Of course, this would not address the chronic food shortage in poor countries that about 800 million of our fellow humans face due to poverty.

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The bright side to inflation

Letter from Chen Weiling, Straits Times 8 Apr 08;

INSPIRED by the Saturday Special Report on inflation and food consumption, I would like to propose an alternative angle we could view the situation from. While I empathise with the low-income group struggling to make a decent meal out of what they earn, inflation could well be good for most middle-income Singaporeans.

Most families are first cutting down on luxury food items such as potato chips and pizza. Some are substituting more expensive meat dishes with tofu and vegetables, while eating out less often. Coincidentally, these moves are helping to promote healthier diets of less oil, salt, preservatives and red meat, as well as leading people to healthier options such as vegetables.

Some are cutting down on luxury activities like watching movies and travelling; some terminate their cable television subscriptions. Many have started buying more local brand goods instead of imported products/services.

Instead of unwillingly sacrificing our chips and cable TV programmes, perhaps Singaporeans can be a happier lot by seeing the silver lining behind inflation: healthier diets, more quality time with our families, supporting local enterprises and developing a greater appreciation of the simpler things in life.

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Study shows person-to-person bird flu transmission in China

Channel NewsAsia 8 Apr 08;

PARIS: A 24-year-old man in China probably infected his father with the H5N1 strain of bird flu before dying, renewing concerns that the disease could one day spread easily among humans, according to a study released on Tuesday.

The case is one of a handful over the last four years in which the H5N1 virus is suspected to have spread from one person to another, according to lead researcher Yu Wang of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control.

To date, however, all such cases have been what scientists call "limited, non-sustained, person-to-person transmission," meaning that contagion only occurs under very specific circumstances.

The vast majority of the known 378 human cases of H5N1 bird flu since 2003 were spread by domestic or wild fowl, according to the World Health Organisation. More than 60 percent proved fatal.

"It is not normal social contact that has led to the human transmission," epidemiologist Jeremy Farrar, a researcher at the national Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, told AFP in an interview.

"In this case it took extensive exposure to secretions of somebody who was very sick in hospital," he explained.

Another limiting factor may be genetic, the study found. The suspected cases of human-to-human transmission have all been "within the family, among blood relatives", said Farrar.

None of the 91 persons besides the father who came into contact with his son before he died showed any sign of infection, said the study, published in the British medical weekly The Lancet.

Nor was there any significant genetic variation between the viral strain in the father or the son.

Experts fear that the H5N1 virus could mutate after infecting one human into a more contagious form, as occurred during at least three flu pandemics in the 20th century.

An estimated 20 to 40 million people perished in the so-called "Spanish flu" of 1918.

Any new clusters of the virus "require urgent investigation because of the possibility that a change in the epidemiology of H5N1 cases could indicate that H5N1 viruses have acquired the ability to spread more easily among people", said Wang.

The two cases examined in the study were identified in December in the city of Nanjing, in China's Jiangsu Province.

Since 2003, there have been 107 H5N1 bird flu fatalities in Indonesia, 52 in Vietnam, 20 in China, 17 in Thailand, and between one and seven in seven other nations. AFP/so

Father 'caught bird flu from son'
BBC News 8 Apr 08;

Tests on a father diagnosed with bird flu in China show he probably caught the disease from his dying son.

Scientists are concerned that if the virus evolves to pass easily from human to human millions could be at risk.

A genetic analysis of the Chinese case published in The Lancet found no evidence to suggest the virus had gained that ability.

But an expert has warned that failure to control outbreaks of disease in poultry is fuelling the risk to humans.

Writing in The Lancet, Dr Jeremy Farrar, of Vietnam's Hospital for Tropical Diseases, said: "Whatever the underlying determinants, if we continue to experience widespread, uncontrolled outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry, the appearance of strains well adapted to human beings might just be matter of time."

However, he said a pandemic was by no means a "biological inevitability".

So far 376 cases of human infection with the H5N1 form of bird flu have been recorded in 14 countries since November 2003, mostly in South East Asia.

There have been 238 recorded deaths from the virus, of which a quarter have come in clusters of two or more linked people.

At present H5N1 remains overwhelmingly a disease which affects birds, and the only humans at risk appear to be those with regular close contact with infected animals.

But the researchers, from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, warn that clusters of H5N1 human infections require close scrutiny to determine whether the virus is starting to evolve into a more potent threat.

Father survived

The Lancet study highlights the case of a 24-year-old man, from Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province, who died from bird flu.

It is thought he passed the disease on to his 52-year-old father, who survived after receiving prompt medical attention, including anti-viral treatment, and plasma cells from somebody who had been vaccinated against the disease.

It is believed the son caught the disease during a visit to a poultry market six days before he became ill.

Medics also tested 91 people who had come into contact with the infected men, but none of those had contracted H5N1.

The researchers say the possibility that the father caught the disease independently cannot be completely ruled out, but think it unlikely.

Other cases of suspected human-to-human transmission have also been between blood relations.

This may be because related individuals share a genetic susceptibility to infection.

Professor Ian Jones, an expert in virology at the University of Reading, said the fact that the father was the only person to be infected was encouraging.

"The virus isolated had no changes to indicate adaptation to human infection," he said.

"There is no indication from this data that we are any nearer a pandemic."

Professor Wendy Barclay, of Imperial College London, agreed there was no evidence to support the idea that H5N1 had acquired mutations that make it more dangerous to humans.

"The experience here reinforces the idea that there are still several barriers the virus must overcome before it acquires human transmissibility."

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Cheaper, faster dengue test kits on the way in Singapore

Labs to get NS1 kits, in hope that it will give dengue busters more time to act
Salma Khalik, Straits Times 7 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE is stepping up its fight against dengue with cheaper, faster test kits to be used on those suspected to be down with the fever.

Faster diagnoses mean faster information, so mosquito-busting teams can act earlier.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) hopes that the 15,000 NS1 kits it will issue to six laboratories by June for general practitioners' use will turn the tide against the disease.

An NS1 test kit can process blood samples from patients who have just fallen sick, while the cheaper of the two existing test kits is effective only five days after the onset of a fever, too late for teams to act on mosquito breeding sites.

There is another test on the market which is good, but costs $175 and is not used as often.

To popularise the use of NS1, the NEA will subsidise 60 per cent of the roughly $30 cost of each test.

A fast-acting test kit is crucial as it takes a mosquito about a week after biting an infected person to have enough of the virus to pass on to others.

This gives the NEA a one-week window to destroy the mosquitoes in an area where people have fallen ill. The earlier it knows where infections have occurred, the more time it has to act.

Singapore's war on dengue will be watched. An article in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Bulletin in February, praising the efforts made here to contain the scourge, said: 'Singapore has been a world leader in Aedes control for decades. Yet, if Singapore is unable to interrupt dengue transmission, it will likely be difficult for other endemic communities to do so.'

Dengue infections have been on the up worldwide, with about 50 million people stricken with it each year. The illness is now endemic in over 100 countries.

The WHO said that urbanisation, which concentrates people in cities, and widespread travel have helped to spread the four dengue viral strains.

Singapore is the only country with 'real-time' tracking of every person infected with dengue, every breeding spot, the dominant mosquito type and the virus in play in different areas.

A national task force - with members from over 20 agencies, including town councils - meets monthly to coordinate the fight against dengue.

The moves taken include islandwide sweeps of all housing estates, monthly checks of all construction sites and working with estate agents to ensure that buildings left empty by collective sales do not become breeding sites for mosquitoes.

Despite the publicity on the dangers of allowing mosquitoes to breed, more than 5,000 homes were fined for the offence last year.

To send a stronger message, the fine was doubled from $100 to $200 last Tuesday. Construction sites found breeding mosquitoes are fined $2,000 the first time, with higher subsequent fines.

Penalties are even higher if people living near these sites come down with dengue. When that happens, the sites are given stop-work orders, which stay in force until the place is cleaned up and given the nod by the NEA's Environmental Health Institute (EHI).

Last year, 44 worksites were told to stop work. This year, three have been given the order so far.

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World rice stockpiles are at their lowest levels since the 1980s

Rising prices threaten supplies
Business Times 8 Apr 08;

(LONDON) From Cairo to New Delhi to Shanghai, the run on rice is threatening to disrupt worldwide food supplies as much as the scarcity of confidence on Wall Street earlier this year roiled credit markets.

China, Egypt, Vietnam and India, representing more than a third of global rice exports, curbed sales this year, and Indonesia says it may do the same.

Investigators in the Philippines, the world's biggest importer, raided warehouses last month to crack down on hoarding. The World Bank in Washington says 33 nations from Mexico to Yemen may face 'social unrest' after food and energy costs increased for six straight years.

Rice, the staple food for half the world, rose 2 per cent to a record US$20.910 per 100 pounds in Chicago yesterday, double the price a year ago and a five-fold increase from 2001. It may reach US$22 by November, said Dennis DeLaughter, owner of Progressive Farm Marketing in Edna, Texas.

'Rice will gain substantially over the next two years,' said Roland Jansen, chief executive officer of Pfaffikon, Switzerland- based Mother Earth Investments AG, which holds 4 per cent of its US$100 million funds in the grain.

Governments will likely maintain curbs on exports 'because those countries want to be able to continue to feed their own populations', he said.

The upheaval parallels turmoil in global capital markets that seized up nine months ago when sub- prime mortgages collapsed.

The difference between what it costs the US government to borrow and the rate banks charge each other for three month loans ended last week at 1.36 percentage points. A year ago the gap was 0.33 percentage point.

Rice-growing nations are driving up prices for producers that want to sell abroad. The Vietnam Food Association said on April 2 it asked members to stop signing export contracts through June, following China, which imposed a 5 per cent tax on exports as of Jan 1. Egypt banned rice shipments through October.

Prices 'are not coming back to the levels we came from', said Mamadou Ciss, head of Singapore-based rice broker Hermes Investments Pte Ltd. Vietnam's 5 per cent broken-grain rice may be 40 per cent higher within three months, he said.

Record grain prices are stoking inflation. Wholesale costs in India rose 7 per cent in the week ended March 22, the fastest pace in more than three years, underscoring the threat from rising food costs, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi said on April 4.

The increase may boost profits for suppliers. Padiberas Nasional Bhd rose the most in seven years in Kuala Lumpur stock exchange trading last week. The company is Malaysia's only licensed rice supplier.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc forecasts that all agricultural commodities it covers will rise during the next six months, except for sugar. Global cereal demand will expand 2.6 per cent this year, 1.6 percentage points above the 10-year average, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.

The UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index of 26 raw materials gained for six consecutive years and advanced 15 per cent this year.

'We have some very serious problems developing globally for food and energy,' said Greg Smith, executive director of Global Commodities Ltd in Adelaide, Australia, which manages US$350 million. World rice stockpiles are at their lowest levels since the 1980s, and the United Nations forecasts that exports will drop 3.5 per cent this year. -- Bloomberg

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Rising food prices a clear and present danger for Asia

Straits Times 8 Apr 08;

Economist warns: If left unchecked, inflation could lead to series of problems
TOKYO - FORGET Bear Stearns. Ignore what Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and United States Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are up to. Take your attention away from which hedge fund is about to blow up. Think about rice.

The price increase of rice - the staple food for about three billion people - to a record last week is the real crisis in the fastest-growing region.

That's not all. 'Food is just the tip of the iceberg,' says Mr Ifzal Ali, chief economist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila. 'We see signs of overheating emerging everywhere in Asia.'

There are two other forces behind Asia's inflation surge, both of which have been building for years. One is asset-price gains that have their roots in low-interest-rate policies from Washington to Tokyo. The other is wages as Asians command higher pay and companies encounter skilled-labour shortages.

It's a kind of horror scenario. Yet what is most noteworthy about it is how surprised many investors and economists are.

Given how the Bank of Japan and the US Federal Reserve have trimmed interest rates over a number of years, these price trends were predictable.

Ditto for Asia's build-up of currency reserves, which are seeping into the money supply.

Also, given Asia's rapid growth, it stands to reason that wages would be rising. The ADB says Asian inflation may reach the highest in a decade this year.

What may surprise many is how rising food prices are less of a cyclical phenomenon than a secular one. For economists like Mr Ali, who have been warning about this for years, it is disheartening to see so little focus on increasing investments in agriculture techniques and technologies.

'The party with high growth and low inflation, the age of innocence, is over,' Mr Ali says. 'Governments now need to buckle down if they are to be able to fly higher again in the future. If this trend isn't arrested and reversed, it could well lead to the end of poverty reduction in Asia.'

Strong words, indeed. And yet, today's bout with inflation could markedly set back a region that has spent 10 years recovering from the Asian crisis. Central banks will have little choice but to raise interest rates, a dynamic that would slow growth and hurt equity markets.

Governments are in for a rougher time. The rise in commodities since the start of the decade has been largely masked by subsidies and export controls. That is becoming too expensive now as prices soar and leaders have a grim choice to make: vastly increase debt levels or let the public bear the brunt.

Food costs alone are a clear and present danger. In many Asian countries, Mr Ali says, food and edible oils account for 60 per cent of the consumer price index (CPI). Even before recent increases, Asian families on average shelled out 50 per cent of income on food. That portion is rising now.

Economists in the US and Europe often focus on 'core' inflation, which excludes food and energy. That's impossible in developing Asian economies. Looking at core CPI only masks what Mr Ali calls a 'pauperising effect' knocking back hard-won gains in living standards.

And then there are what he calls 'speed bumps to growth' that are fuelling inflation. Big increases in prices of everything from cement to steel will complicate Asia's need to improve roads, bridges, ports and telecommunications. It is an odd twist of fate that in improving infrastructure to restrain inflation, all that building activity could further fuel it.

'This inflation issue has a direct impact on basic well-being,' Mr Ali says. 'That's why it is so politically and socially explosive.'

BLOOMBERG NEWS

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