Colombia: the new cooperation agreement with the OIE will strengthen animal health

The agreement was signed within the framework of the OIE's Assembly, that is taking place in Paris (France) and that brings together the health organisations of 157 countries out of the 183 member countries.

This document will allow Colombia to be part of the OIE's Animal Health and Welfare World Fund, with resources that will be allocated as of June 1st, 2019 until May 20th, 2022.

The Minister, Mr. Valencia Pinzón, highlighted that this agreement will establish three lines of action with which the Institute and the OIE will work:

• The first of them will focus on strengthening the foot-and-mouth disease virus prevention and control activities with the aim of assessing the design of strategies for the surveillance and eradication of this cross-border disease, taking advantage of the experience of other countries that are currently free of foot-and-mouth disease without vaccination.
• The second one will imply the creation of a coordination group of experts on African swine fever (ASF), so they assess the risk of the introduction of this disease through the border, exchanging information, discussing coordinated prevention and control strategies at a national and regional level, and also resuming the European Union's experience that avoided the contamination with ASF and its spreading.
• Lastly, the third line of action will focus on Colombia`s aquaculture sector through a health surveillance project in aquatic animals. In fact, the OIE proposes that the funds available through the agreement with Colombia are used to support this country and Peru and Ecuador so they strengthen their surveillance strategy that will allow to improve the health of the aquatic animals and, therefore, food safety through an efficient and sustainable aquaculture.

Finally, with this agreement between the ICA and the OIE, the exchange of knowledge will be allowed, and the Colombian professionals will have the chance to participate in the different training programs carried out by the member countries during the period of validity of the agreement.