March 7, 2013

China's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have officially opened the FAO Reference Centre for Animal Influenza in Harbin, China.

China's Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO), Yu Kangzheng, and his FAO counterpart, Juan Lubroth, attended the opening ceremony.

The Animal Influenza Labof Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (HVRI) is the first FAO-recognised reference centre for animal diseases in China and the second in the world, right after the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health of Germany.

A FAO reference centre is authorised by the FAO Director-General upon competitive selection and evaluation.

In recent years, China and FAO have cooperated closely in many fields, especially in animal disease control and lab bio-security. The FAO-recognised reference centre will push forward such cooperation into a new stage, according to Yu.