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Here you go, hon. Do horses eat grass?
And these are little horses, aren’t they, hey?
Special Lao-type ponies.
I’m one of your classic vets, actually,
who, from the age of seven, wanted to be a vet.
He doesn’t like that piece of grass.
Dr Francette Dusan’s never far from animals.
But her role as an epidemiologist with the World Health Organisation
in the Lao capital, Vientiane, is hardly the work of a classic vet.
Is there any indication from the National Animal Health Centre
of when those results would be available?
They said around two weeks.
Discussion at the regular World Health Organisation meeting
is centred on an anthrax outbreak.
My job is to say what’s happening in the animals
in relation to this disease.
Is it related to the production system?
Who is at risk in terms of human health, then?
And how can we minimise this risk to human health?
Francette’s specialty is zoonosis —
that’s disease transfer between animals and humans.
She provides advice to local professionals and primary producers.
We’re off to see a backyard slaughter point,
or small-scale slaughter facility.
The person who runs this has had some training
in risk-reduction measures for themselves
and we’re going to see what he’s put in place at his own facility
to try and protect himself and his family
and make a cleaner product.
(PEOPLE GREET EACH OTHER IN LOCAL LANGUAGE)
So the concrete floor was put down, when — two years ago, one year ago?
When did they do the concreting?
How many poultry do you do every day?
(WOMAN AND MAN SPEAK LOCAL LANGUAGE)
About 300. More than 300 per day.
With plans to increase production,
the need to maintain health standards is vital
and everyone wants to avoid an outbreak of H1N1,
the sometimes fatal avian flu.
He’s made some remarkable changes.
I did recommend, if he’s going to build an enclosed facility,
that it would be great to have some fly control, some flyscreens,
so that, you know, our finished product
hasn’t got flies all over it.
It’s Francette’s dream job, supporting the Lao government
through the World Health Organisation...
..making a genuine difference to the lives of its people,
with flow-on effects to the world.
That looks pretty good for the moment.
Countries such as Australia and America and the UK
are at risk from diseases from other countries
and there’s a need to contribute to development
of animal health systems
and human health systems in those countries.
You know, you have to talk to the market owner and say,
“It’s not good enough.
“We’ve tried to work with you.
“We’ve put in handwashing facilities.”
But you need to fix your toilet. You need to fix the water.
The World Health Organisation
has been working closely with the markets
to eliminate potential sources of disease.
They would have either fish or meat here.
And it’s a vinyl top.
It’s got all these rips in it.
If it was bright, new vinyl and it was able to be cleaned,
then that would be fine.
But this is old vinyl, it’s deteriorated,
it can’t really be cleaned.
Sanitation at point of sale is a big issue.
This monitoring visit provides mixed results.
I’m really happy with how they’re utilising
what the project’s been providing for them.
We can see that it’s just so much easier to keep this clean
than the vinyl tables or the wooden-covered tables.
So this one’s broken? What happened?
WOMAN: This tap already broke around two months ago.
And also, like, the market operator already closed the water.
Two months ago? Yes.
Because this one is broken, so they don’t want...
So they don’t want to fix it? No.
(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)
It seems there’s a stand-off between the vendors and market management
about who should pay for water,
so the tap has been disabled.
(MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)
And it’s a key way for disease transmission.
I mean, primarily, if we’ve got people going to the toilet
and not washing their hands when they come back,
then that’s a key issue for oral/faecal transmission.
But here we’ve got cross-contamination from meat,
from outside areas and so on
and then it comes back to, again,
how do you look after yourself in this environment?
You make sure you cook your food really well.
Despite the occasional frustrations
during her first 2.5 years in the country,
Francette has witnessed many advances.
Human health surveillance is much stronger in Laos at this moment
than the animal surveillance system.
There’s been a lot of advances in supporting,
say, surveillance for poultry outbreaks, avian influenza,
but there’s still many other animal diseases that do go unreported
because that capacity level is still building
at the lower levels within Laos.
(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)
So they’ve been sick for a couple of weeks now?
(WOMAN TRANSLATES)
(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)
He said around three weeks already.
The farmer has identified a small number of sick pigs in his herd
and has taken the correct step
of immediately quarantining them from the others.
He’s been affected recently by a disease outbreak
of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, or PRRS.
It’s also been called ‘blue air’ in China.
It’s a new disease to this country.
I think Laos, over the last five years,
has improved its capacity remarkably
and this is in line with the international health requirements.
The Dusan family is certainly thriving in Vientiane.
In addition to her important role with the World Health Organisation,
Francette’s life is becoming even busier.
He is gonna joined by a little brother or sister very soon,
so we’re all looking forward to that.
We’d like to stay in Laos another couple of years at least.
I’m enjoying the challenges of working here.
We’d like to continue on some international experiences
but hoping also to be able to bring this knowledge back to Australia
at some stage as well.