June 9, 2010

Gambia to strengthen capacities to control livestock diseases

The Gambia's deputy minister for Agriculture, Hon. Khalifa Kambi has said that the government is ever ready to work in partnership with international and sub regional agencies in order to strengthen capacities against the incidence of livestock diseases.

According to Abdourahman Jobe, permanent secretary in the ministry, Gambia has been selected to participate in the coming AU-IBAR project on Vaccines against Neglected Animal Diseases in Africa (VANADA). This project would focus on countrywide mass vaccination campaigns against the Pest de Petit Ruminants (PPR), which has become the major infectious disease in small ruminants responsible for most of the morbidity and mortality in sheep and goats throughout the country.

Jobe noted that the AU-IBAR has been instrumental in the eradication of Rinderpest and Contagious Bovine Pleuro Pneumonia (CBPP) in Gambia and other African countries through projects and programmes such as the Joint Project 15 (JP15), the Pan African Rinderpest Control Programme (PARC) and the Pan African Programme for the Control of Epizootics (PACE). He said that the last case of Rinderpest was reported in Gambia in 1965 and CBPP in 1971.

He said that since the first reported outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HIPAI) in Africa in 2006, Gambia has greatly stepped up activities geared towards building and strengthening national capacities to deal with the disease.

The implementation of the SPINAP programme in the country has significantly contributed to raising the level of awareness of the population about avian influenza. He noted that it has also contributed to building capacity in disease surveillance and laboratory diagnosis as well as increase bio-security at poultry farms.

He added that another programme that AU-IBAR is implementing is the veterinary governs which is worldwide, strengthening and cooperation among member states for them to take ownership to bring about more wealth to respective countries. All projects are geared towards enriching participants to take this information to the lowest level.