EU drills DVS on compliance

Pauline Dikuelo | Tuesday December 16, 2014 19:40

 

He revealed this last week after the completion of the seven-day training workshop on export recommendations for the EU market, which was organised by the EU. About 42 delegates from 11 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries participated in the workshop.

Speaking to Mmegi Business after the workshop, Modisa explained that the training was aimed at finding ways to prevent Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) from affecting the exports markets. “We wanted to impart critical information to participants, especially veterinary officers, about the risks often encountered during the processing of the exports, which are usually caused by FMD. We also held back-to-back meetings with EU officers because we needed clarification on issues surrounding exporting process,” he explained. Modisa added that there had been increased engagement of stakeholders, which he believed would improve efficiency.  He however, gave assurance that the surveillance and certification procedures guaranteed a safe product for the EU community. He said his department continued to put a lot of emphasis on ensuring that animal and pubic health control systems were put in place.

Food and Veterinary Officer Benoit Sauveroche, said regular training workshops were important as they mitigated the risk of disease introduction into the EU.

“This will possible help prevent the entry of the foot and mouth virus in the countries which are not affected,” he said. He added that they were monitoring the immunity levels achieved in the different age cohorts.

Sauveroche also said they had the ability to promptly detect the presence of the virus, prevent its spreading and eradicate the disease before it spread.

There were reported foot and mouth outbreaks in zone two, Mohembo east registering 77 cases and Chaa registering 44 cases, which were fortunately, controlled by vaccination. Surveillance is still ongoing on these affected areas.

In 2011, there was a national FMD outbreak, which resulted in restocking of 31140 cattle. Cattle were removed by slaughter. Surveillance also picked diseases in goats and sheep, which were removed by stamping out.

However, the zone has now been reinstated as FMD free. Challenges that surfaced at the time included the contamination of samples in the lab, which resulted in inability to establish the causative virus.  Agriculture contributes three percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which the livestock component is two percent.