EU holds 'Better Training for Safer Food' regional workshop on animal disease

AMMAN — The European Union (EU), under the direction of the European Commission Directorate General for Health and Food Safety, organised a regional workshop on peste des petits ruminants in Amman last week, which concluded on Thursday. 

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious transboundary animal disease that can kill anywhere between 30 and 70 per cent of infected animals and has severe negative socio-economic impacts on the income of livestock farmers and, in particular, the livelihoods and food security of the most vulnerable rural communities, according to a statement issued by the EU on the workshop’s occasion.

Discovered in Côte d’Ivoire in 1942, the disease has since spread at an alarming rate, threatening the very existence of over 80 per cent of the world’s sheep and goat population in more than 70 countries, mostly throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the statement added.

The workshop was held in the framework of the 2018 EU decision to support the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organisation, in their joint strategy for control and eradication of PPR, with the goal of eliminating the disease by 2030, according to the statement.

The event was part of the Better Training for Safer Food initiative and marked the end of a series of regional workshops on Sanitary and Phytosanitary issues held all over the world during 2018 and 2019, the statement said.

The training aimed at building the capacity for PPR prevention and control in the region while helping to create the grounds for a more effective cooperation between neighbouring countries, the statement said, adding that around 35 people from countries in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan attended the four-day workshop with most participants senior national officials from competent veterinary authorities involved in the fields covered by the workshop.

The workshop supported the participating countries towards reducing PPR outbreaks, which will subsequently contribute to preventing the disease from spreading further into neighbouring regions, including the EU, which ultimately will lead to better and safer food for both European and Middle-Eastern consumers, the statement concluded.