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The EU has earmarked more than €199 million to support programmes to eradicate, control and monitor animal diseases and zoonoses, aiming to further strengthen the protection of human and animal health in 2013. Overall 137 programmes have been selected for EU funding to tackle animal diseases that impact on human and animal health as well as trade.
The elected programmes were granted the following allocation: Bovine Tuberculosis (about €71 million); Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (about €54 million); Bovine Brucellosis (about €7.4 million), rabies (€25 million); Bluetongue (€1.5 million); Classical Swine Fever (€2.5 million); Salmonellosis (about €16.6 million); Avian influenza (€2.6 million) and African Swine Fever in Sardinia (€1.4 million).
The allocation of financing will assist national authorities to control and eradicate these diseases, fund vaccination and carry out surveillance programmes in order to detect early outbreaks. It is worth mentioning that for Salmonellosis, which is the second most frequently reported zoonotic disease in humans, the number of cases has been steadily decreasing over the past five years with thanks to the Union co-financing. Moreover, thanks to the eradication programmes, the rabies (a fatal disease transmitted by animals to humans) situation in Member States continues also to improve and the increased level of co-financing (75%) will further assist the Member States in their final efforts to eradicate rabies. Continuing with the positive trend in terms of decrease in disease prevalence, the total amount has also decreased by €5 million on the previous year. As from 1 July 2013 the programmes submitted by Croatia will also be eligible for co-financing.
Friday November 30, 2012/ European Commission/ European Union.
http://ec.europa.eu
