Implementation of the FAO-OIE global Foot-and-Mouth disease control strategy

The West Eurasia FMD Regional Roadmap was launched in 2008 in Shiraz, Iran. The 6th Roadmap Meeting for West Eurasian countries took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from the 28th to 30th April 2015 organized by FAO and OIE in collaboration with the European Commission for the Control of FMD (EuFMD).

In this occasion, 13 of the 14 countries of the West Eurasia group attended this meeting: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The Russian Federation attended as an observer.

Progressive control pathway for FMD (PCP-FMD) was developed in 2008 and published in 2011 by FAO and EuFMD and became a joint FAO-EuFMD-OIE guiding tool for the national control approach in which standard control measures are applied in a step-wise and monitored manner.

The PCP Stage assessment was conducted by analysing a PCP-FMD questionnaire which was filled and submitted before the Roadmap Meeting to the FAO-OIE Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs) FMD working group (WG). That was followed by assessing the countries presentations and carrying out interviews with country’s representatives during the roadmap meeting. The results of the assessment were presented by PCP experts from FAO, OIE and EuFMD to the Regional Advisory Group (RAG) of West Eurasia for final recommendation on countries’ PCP stages. The RAG consists of three Chief Veterinary Officers and leads of the epidemiology and laboratory regional networks who are elected by the participating countries.

West Eurasian countries continue to progress successfully in control of FMD and advancing in their PCP-FMD stages as follows:

1. Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan currently are in stage 1 i.e. understanding FMD epidemiology and preparing a risk-based strategic plan (RBSP) to progress to stage 2;
2. Iran and Turkey are in PCP-FMD stage 2, i.e. implementing a RBSP to reduce the risk of FMD;
3. Georgia and Pakistan advanced this year to stage 2 and will be implementing the established RBSP;
4. Armenia and Azerbaijan in provisional stage 2 pending submission of their revised RBSP plans before the end of 2015.

The northern and western regions of Kazakhstan gained an OIE status of free without vaccination.

Thursday June 11, 2015/ FAO.
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