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the feasibility of measures to address the risk of the kurban markets needs to be re-assessed, such as the state purchase of unsold animals.
In summary, the Executive questioned the progress in FMD control over the past 25 years, given the unstable national situation and the failure to prevent disease entry into Thrace. The Chairman questioned how much progress could be made unless there were clear incentives for stakeholder participation in FMD control. On FMD risk from neighbouring countries: • the GDPC position, given by Dr Pakdil, is that the situation across the south-east border of Turkey has become much more unstable in the past 2 years, and the risk of entry from Iraq and Syria was elevated; • the GDPC was grateful for information supplied via the EUFMD on disease risk and had used this in briefing of the Provincial directorates in December 06, pre-kurban festival. Recommendations: Given in the pre-amble. c. Progress report on EUFMD/EC support to FMD control i. Turkey Keith Sumption provided a summary (Appendix 10) of the assistance provided to Turkey in support of FMD control in the winter risk period 2006-2007; • 1 million doses of trivalent FMD vaccine had been supplied, following tender, from the Netherlands, and delivered in November 2006; as delivery came at the end of the vaccination campaign, a decision was taken (meting in Ankara on 17th November) to hold this as an emergency reserve, pending assessment the events of the vaccination coverage, and held in case of need for re-vaccination in Thrace or elsewhere; • 55,000 US$ in support of improved outbreak investigation, through hiring of locally recruited epidemiologists to support GDPC to investigate FMD outbreaks; recruitment by end of 2006 had been planned but delays had occurred, including GDPC request to postpone recruitment until March 07; following the Thrace outbreaks, EUFMD had insisted on early recruitment in January. The duration of the assistance is until April 2007, on the assumption that the EC/Turkey FMD control project will be initiated; if further delayed, the need for support should be reviewed. Conclusion: The Executive supported the line of action taken and urged that the epidemiological support be implemented without further delay. ii. Caucasus Dr Pötzsch, EUFMD professional officer based in Tbilisi, Georgia, provided a report on the progress to implement the 2006 program of FMD control support actions, as agreed at the 72nd Session (Appendix 11 and Appendix 12). After review of the information on the A Iran 05 epidemic in Iran and Turkey, and from the performance testing of the FGI-ARRIAH vaccine against the A Iran 05 virus, a warning message had been sent (in Russian) to the three Caucasus countries in December 2006 (Appendix 13). This assessment highlighted the importance of border security, and early detection of FMD outbreaks, since the vaccination conducted in 2006 with FGI-ARRIAH quadrivalent vaccine was expected to confer relatively low protection against the epidemic virus, although likely to perform satisfactorily against types O and Asia-1. Given the relatively low vaccination coverage in north-east Turkey, with most Provinces less than 50%
74th Session of the Executive Committee of the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease
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