Open session of the standing technical committee of the EUFMD- 2002

areas and International Veterinary Health Certificates are issued only for such products.

Recording and identification of large ruminants started in September 2001.

Dr Sungur took this opportunity to congratulate Dr Keith Sumption on his new position as Secretary of the EUFMD. He assured the meeting that Turkey will continue to contribute to the future studies in the field of FMD epidemiology, diagnosis and vaccine production to the best of its ability.

On closing, Dr Sungur thanked all the participants for attending this meeting and wished the meeting success. He hoped that the participants would find some time during the very tight schedule of the meeting at least to benefit from Çesme, one of the most attractive tourist regions of Turkey.

Dr Keith Sumption once again took the floor and on behalf of FAO conveyed the apologies of Mr Doumandji, the FAO Representative in Turkey, who at the last minute, was unable to attend.

He recalled the long history and good relationships of the Government of Turkey with the EUFMD Commission, which is recognised by FAO. The work undertaken over many years has been very important in reducing the risk of FMD introduction into other member states of EUFMD. FAO recognises the efforts of the Turkish Authorities to promote animal health and disease control in the Eurasian region. The cooperation between Turkey and Iran through a FAO TCP project, may be followed by further cooperative transboundary disease actions. The involvement of a Turkish expert in an EC funded expert mission to Iran scheduled in October is a good sign of this. The expertise, experience and regional position of Turkey should be of great importance to the regional FMD control programme. FAO also recognises the efforts made by the Government of Turkey in the Tripartite action (EUFMD, EC and OIE) involving 3 countries in the southern Balkans (Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria). This work is ongoing and important for EUFMD members. The joint application for a TCP project involving these 3 countries has been submitted to FAO and it is hoped that approval will be given in order to begin activities in 2002.

On closing, in his capacity as the new Secretary of the EUFMD he thanked everybody for their warm welcome into the Commission and is honoured to be able to work in support of the Research Group. He reminded the meeting of the importance of the Research Group to the Commission as this Group represents a very significant proportion of the research-active FMD scientists in the world. In addition, the Sessions of the Research Group are not only scientific conferences since the recommendations of the meetings feed back to the CVOs of the 33 Member States of the EUFMD for scientific guidance.

The floor was given to Dr Kris De Clercq, Chairman of the Research Group, who on behalf of the Group welcomed all to the meeting. He thanked the Turkish Authorities for the excellent organization of the meeting. Most participants will know how much work goes into preparing such a meeting, especially with such a high number of participants and the hard work is much appreciated. He pointed out that at the RG level the collaboration with the SAP FMD Institute is good. The information received from the laboratory is of the utmost importance to the RG. In the Session of the Research Group held in Borovets in 2000, nobody had any idea of the events which took place in 2001 which were to change the world. Not only did 2001 bring 2