THE services of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) will soon be enhanced through an injection of $9 million, in the form of a contract between the Ministry of Agriculture and Marics and Company Limited, for the supply and delivery a vehicle to be used for animal treatment and disease control.
This contract is one of 12 that were signed recently by the Ministry of Agriculture to enhance the services offered by the sub-agencies within the ministry.
The vehicle, acquired through the recent contract, will be used by GLDA’s Epidemiology Unit to provide services to all 10 administrative regions of Guyana.
Currently, the epidemiology unit carries out active and passive surveillance activities countrywide for several diseases such as classical and African swine fever, foot and mouth disease, avian influenza, Newcastle, avian leucosis, equine infection anemia, equine encephalitis rabies, duck viral hepatitis, and others.
Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, in a recent statement, said that the acquisition of the vehicle will help GLDA to be more responsive.

“These diseases can have a devastating effect on the livestock industry and food security. They can also have a negative effect on trade, which will ultimately affect farmers and the country as a whole, financially. The vehicle that will soon be acquired by the GLDA will help in the response to disease outbreaks should they occur.
“It will also assist with reports of disease outbreak investigations, vaccination for things like rabies, and blackleg. This vehicle will also help our officers to respond quickly to reports of unusual deaths in livestock, as well as any suspected incursion of foreign animal diseases into Guyana territory. The contractor has also indicated that this vehicle will be handed over to GLDA within the next two months, which is almost three months ahead of schedule,” Minister Mustapha said.
He further said that the government will continue to inject resources into the sector to ensure effective border and import quarantine policies and programmes are implemented.

“The aphorism ‘prevention is better than cure’ is very relevant when dealing with transboundary animal diseases. This is why government will continue to devote appropriate levels of resources to ensure effective border and import quarantine policies and programmes to prevent the introduction of these disease.
“This will be complemented with an active animal disease surveillance programme geared at early detection of any exotic pathogens,” Minister Mustapha said.
For 2021, GLDA’s quarantine officers have already carried out several operations which resulted in 96 interceptions of animals, and livestock products at some of Guyana’s major ports of entry. Following those activities, several actions were taken which included the quarantine of illegally imported animals, sanitary disposal, and in some cases, euthanasia. The Epidemiology Unit of GLDA, which is a sub-unit of authority’s Animal Health Unit, is responsible for all disease prevention, control, and eradication measures in the 10 regions. It also serves as the first line of defence against instances of incursions of foreign animal diseases from neighbouring countries.