Announcement
Workshop on Trade and Transboundary Animal Diseases
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Photo: USAID
Cattle vaccination in Borana.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agriculture Service and USAID Regional Economic Growth & Integration (REGI) office are working in partnership with the African Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), Chief Veterinary Officers of involved nations, COMESA, Food & Agriculture Organization and other organizations to develop a workshop aimed at lessening barriers to trade and movingtoward a risk-management basis of disease control. USAID-REGI supported programs (Regional Enhanced Livelihoods for Pastoral Areas and Pastoral Areas Coordination, Analysis and Policy Support ) are also involved with workshop design and support. The workshop will be held in Kenya in March-April, 2009.
Disease control is a significant issue for animals and animal products moving out of the Horn of Africa into trade channels with the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. Maladies such as Foot and Mouth Disease and Peste des Petits Ruminants are highly contagious and damaging to animal productivity while others like Rift Valley Fever are infectious to both livestock and humans. These diseases and several others affecting livestock are found in Horn of Africa nations and their control is important for trade to take place.
The intention of the workshop is to examine the present disease control programs that prepare animals for export and to look toward ways to supplement and strengthen those programs perhaps to the level of regionalization. A second intention is to aim toward harmonized packages of both importation requirements by the receiving nations and disease control measures by the exporting nations.
Livestock, primarily sheep and goats but also cattle and camels, is the most important production item of the Horn of Africa region and their exportation is critical to the livelihoods of the pastoralists of those areas. This workshop is the first of a proposed series that will aim to promote stability for the livestock producers of the region and has attracted strong interest in collaboration and participation.