The Ministry of Agriculture, through the Agricultural Export Diversification Programme (ADP), has begun a series of training programmes for technical officials of the animal health sector. The first of a set of training exercises aims at standardizing the techniques to be used in the testing and diagnosis of cattle for bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis and rabies.
The Ministry will be launching a countrywide campaign for the control and eradication of these diseases from Guyana. These three are zoonotic diseases (diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans).
Guyana has a low prevalence of tuberculosis and bat-transmitted rabies in cattle, while brucellosis was only diagnosed once since in the 1940s. The control and eradication campaign will involve the testing of all cattle in the country to officially establish the status of each disease and to institute programmes for their subsequent control and eradication by applying stringent quarantine measures that would involve further ongoing training of staff over the next six months.
This sequence of training exercises, which commenced on June 14, and concluded on June 18, is part of a wide range of activities and measures being taken by the Ministry of Agriculture, supported by the ADP, to boost cattle production and enable Guyana to export beef to the Caribbean and the wider international market.
The training is being conducted by the International Consulting Firm, Agrotec Spa, of Italy, that was hired to carry out the series of activities to improve the Agricultural Health and Food Safety System in Guyana.
Similar training will commence shortly to upgrade the capacity of the staff of the Plant Health Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Veterinary Public Health and Food and Drug Departments of the Ministry of Health.
These training exercises are all aimed at strengthening the Food Safety Sector to assure the health of Guyanese and compliance with the requirements of Guyana’s trading partners of agricultural products. (GINA)