Appendix 13 DRAFT Recommendations FAO/OIE/EC Tripartite meeting on control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease and other exotic diseases in the southern Balkans Held on 28 November 2007 in London, United Kingdom NB: Only Appendix (TPT) 1 included here – Full report at http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/commissions/en/eufmd/eufmd.html Introduction A meeting of the FAO/OIE/EC Tripartite on control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease and other exotic diseases in the southern Balkans was convened on the 28th November 2007 at DEFRA, London. The meeting was attended by delegates of south eastern Balkan countries of Greece and Bulgaria. The EC (DG-SANCO) was represented by Dr Alf-Eckbert Füssel. Apologies were received from Turkey (Dr Nihat Pakdil, GDPC) and from the OIE. Experts from the Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) for FMD (Dr David Paton) and for bluetongue (Dr Chris Oura) at Pirbright, and the Chairman of the EUFMD Research Group (Dr Aldo Dekker) also participated in the meeting. FAO was represented by Dr Giancarlo Ferrari, Subregional Animal Health Centre for Central Asia, Ankara, Turkey. The meeting was chaired by the EUFMD Secretary, Dr Keith Sumption. As usual, the meeting had two principal Agenda items, prevention of FMD and of other exotic virus diseases (BT, sheep and goat pox and PPR); these were covered in parts I and II of the meeting, respectively. Recommendations 1. 2.
The future venue for meetings between the national competent authorities of Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey should in 2008 revert to the normal practice of rotation between the countries. The possibility to widen the scope and country participation in the meetings towards a Balkan regional animal health forum should be on Agenda of the EUFMD Executive Committee, to be held following the Tripartite in November 2007.
Relating mainly to control of FMD: 1.
2. 3. 4.
5.
Turkey is strongly encouraged to implement the immediate biosecurity measures at Istanbul markets during the Kurban-Bayram festival, particularly the disinfection of all dealers vehicles, and the disposal of contaminated bedding and to strictly supervise the actions at the markets to achieve the above, as recommended by the EUFMD/EC mission team. Turkey should maintain a reserve of FMD vaccine in case of need for ring-vaccination around outbreaks in Thrace region, following the festival period. Turkey is encouraged to review in depth the factors that led to the multiple entry of FMD into Thrace region in 2007 (and 2006). The FMD outbreak reporting and diagnostic processing should be reviewed to improve the speed of detection of unusual events, to trigger further laboratory and epidemiologic investigations, and consideration given to establishing rapid sample test procedures in decentralized laboratories including Istanbul. For 2007, Greece and Bulgaria should maintain a heightened level of alert for FMD in the high period of late December to late January 2008, when the risk of FMD is expected to be highest.
On surveillance and disease notification in Thrace region: 6.
Turkey should continue to apply the standard EUFMD/EC procedure for investigation and reporting of outbreaks and apply this to all outbreaks in 2007-8 in Thrace region and provinces bordering the Sea of Marmara, in order to identify the reason for each outbreak, the potential risk of further spread and the need for vaccination or other control measures; the results of FMD investigations should be summarized at least once per month and made available to the neighbours and the FAO/EC/OIE. 100
