Members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), on Monday, met in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, to discuss members’ capacity to tackle emerging transboundary animal diseases.
The frequent emergence of zoonotic diseases heightens fear across the subregion and calls for members to strengthen a coordinated surveillance approach.
The Nigerian Minister of Livestock Development, Alhaji Idi Muhtar Maiha, while addressing delegates at the ECOWAS 10th annual meeting of the Regional Animal Health Network (RAHN) in collaboration with the German Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and other partners, said that the issues of transboundary animal diseases needed urgent attention.
“The meeting underscores the urgent need to come out with legislation and strategies to see to the surveillance, prevention, and control of trans-border diseases. The fact that this is coming under the auspices of ECOWAS says a lot about that determination.
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“I believe at the end of this engagement, a strong communique will come out to advise the ECOWAS secretariat on agriculture as to how to mount surveillance, prevention, and control of trans-border diseases because these trans-border diseases invariable are zoonotic, which means they affect both animals and human beings.
“It is our determination under the ECOWAS umbrella that this can be done in no distant future so that most animals that are moving across the borders, there will be an effective quarantine to determine whether they are fit; if they are not, measures would have to be taken to get that certificate of fitness before they move,” the minister said.
The Executive Director of ECOWAS Regional Animal Health Centre based in Bamako Mali, Dr Vivian Iwar, said the meeting brings together all the experts and professionals working in the field of animal health to assess transboundary animal disease landscape to examine the issues and plan ahead to find solutions to problems of zoonotic disease across the subregion.
She said the meeting would help professionals in the subregion to develop policy documents and present them to the minister responsible for agriculture and livestock in the ECOWAS member states for action.
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legates from other countries who spoke with Daily Trust emphasised the need for collaborations to strengthen members’ capacity for surveillance in view of the fact that some members of the regional body face shortages of veterinary professionals.
The meeting, which is expected to last for five days, will look at other issues including the extinction of donkeys and illegal trade in donkey products in the region.
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