Zim applauds OIE for animal helath support

Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Minister Perrance Shiri has applauded the World Health Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) for its technical support in promoting animal health.

He was addressing delegates at the 87th OIE General Session in France recently.

OIE is an old French language acronym for the present day “World Organisation for Animal Health” with its headquarters in Paris, France.

This was the first time that Zimbabwe has addressed the international conference.

The conference was attended by OIE members states, Government ministers from member countries, members of the diplomatic corps and representative of the scientific community and other standard setting bodies.

It was meant to adopt a number of new and or reviewed inter-governmental standards covering animal and zoonotic disease detection, prevention, control and regimes for the sanitary safety of international trade in animals and animal products, as well as animal welfare.

It also analysed the current global landscape of animal diseases, including zoonosis.

Officiating at the function, Minister Shiri applauded OIE for the support the country had been getting over years through a number of missions from the organisation towards ensuring animal health.

“We are grateful for the OIE’s partnership with the World Animal Health Protection of the United Kingdom of Great Britain pledging to capacitate our veterinary services in disaster management following the calamity we experienced in the eastern districts of my country due to Cyclone Idai earlier this year,” he said.

“With an estimated 13 million people, Zimbabwe realises the importance of the health, welfare and livelihood for her human resource endowment, particularly the need to ensure nutritional security and other utilities for the more than 70 percent who are in the low income brackets in rural and urban areas.

‘Rural life in about 64 percent of the land is agro-based and livestock are a strong part of livelihoods.

“Our Government has, therefore, always prioritised animal production in providing protein and micro element dense nutrition, as well as jobs and income opportunities for the populace with the current focus on women and youth.”

Minister Shiri said the country’s thrust and support in animal health has been strong with high recognition, attention and investment in veterinary services in attempts to minimise the dents made by ill health and disease to production, productivity and competitiveness of animal source products.

“Our veterinary outreach has been improving with strong measures to enhance production efficiency and increased economic mainstreaming of especially the smallholder livestock owners so they can contribute to public health and export led economic growth objectives,” he said.

Minister Shiri reaffirmed Zimbabwe’s continued membership and participation in the preparation, adoption and implementation of OIE standards as they related to animal health, veterinary public health, animal welfare and international trade and therefore important for the attainment of the national “Vision 2030”.

“I am pleased to acknowledge the knowledge sharing opportunities we have accessed over past years to build our technical capacities in ensuring that we remain head and shoulders with the rest of members of the OIE in terms of trade measures,” he said.

“The various performance of veterinary services mission reports have become an important resource for our national development planning.”

Minister Shiri called for partnership in the development of standards that minimise costs, especially in the control of Foot n Mouth disease.

The OIE was founded in 1924 first by seven European countries, which shared a strong interest in addressing the problems of transboundary animal diseases, which had plagued the continent’s animal resources, threatening failure to fight and win wars, transportation, trade, hunger, malnutrition, impoverishment of farmers, communities and nations.

Among them are diseases such as Rinderpest, Lung Disease (CBPP) in cattle and Glanders in horses.

These diseases, which could easily spread across country and territorial boundaries, could only be effectively fought by collaboration among countries.

Zimbabwe joined the OIE, which has 182 members, in August 1980 after its independence in April of the same year.