By Andrea Hargraves The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development (Seapdr) of Rio Grande do Sul and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), on Thursday (1), during the 45th Exposition, promoted agricultural health with the Uruguayan and Paraguayan authorities. The Minister of Agriculture, Domingos Filho López, opened the event speaking about the importance of harmonizing actions between the three southern states of Brazil and their neighboring countries.
According to Seapdr’s Director of Animal Health Surveillance and Defense, Rosane Collares, this was the first meeting Paraguay participated in. He celebrated his “historic engagement”. “It was a rough meeting and the beginning of joint business planning,” Roseanne stated.
According to her, there is already an enhanced work of the Secretariat with Uruguay. “As of Thursday, the Ministers of Agriculture of Uruguay and Brazil signed a cooperation agreement so that the veterinary services of the two countries can work together,” Roseanne explained.
It was agreed during the meeting that if there is training and capacity building, vacancies should be presented to representatives from other countries and countries, so that there is an exchange of information and coordinated work.
The Director of the Animal Health Department of the Agricultural Defense Secretariat of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), Giraldo Moraes, highlighted the importance of the meeting to strengthen relations with the two border countries, Uruguay and Paraguay. “Unfortunately, Argentina cannot attend,” he said.
According to him, with the progress of the withdrawal of vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease, Brazil resumes rapprochement with other border countries. Moraes referred to the cooperation agreement signed Thursday. He pointed out that “it is essential that the animal and plant health veterinary services be able to develop their specific action plans for border control.”
“We already have a lot of experience here and intend to implement an ongoing agenda of meetings so that we can always maintain the exchange of information from joint work and, above all, restore contact with colleagues in the field,” Moraes said. He concluded that “veterinarians located in local veterinary units on both sides need to communicate with frequent meetings to provide security for border procedures.”
The Director General of Livestock Services of the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Diego de Freitas, said the issue of border control is a source of concern among countries. “With Brazil, we have been working on this issue for about two years. The idea is to put together a joint program for next year,” Freitas promised.
According to him, the task is to control all livestock located in the province of Rivera. There are 180 kilometers of dry border (no rivers). For example, if there is a problem with scabies in animals on one side, and if we do not act together, then the solution will not be as effective as it should be”, concluded Freitas.
The head of Paraguay’s National Service for Quality and Animal Health, José Carlos Martin, stated that the meeting was very interesting to share information with others. Rarely have we had the opportunity to meet in a successful country on a program so important, one that we have worked on regionally for over 50 years. Listening to the opinion of state technicians as well as the opinion of the private sector is fundamental to us.”
Martin congratulated the committed efforts of the State of Rio Grande do Sul in holding this “global and integrative” edition of the Expointer. According to him, in the past year, Paraguay has done very serious work in terms of agricultural health. Especially on the border with Mato Grosso do Sul. We have done a lot of health monitoring measures. Always share experiences with technicians and realize that we are a region that is the world’s supermarket and supplier of animal protein and food. This pandemic has taught us two things: One, the world is not short of food or medicine.”
In turn, the President of the Agricultural Defense Agency of Parana and the President of the Forum of Agricultural Health Entities in Brazil, Altamir Martins, said that there had been discussions at the National Forum of Agricultural Health Implementers (Fonsa Sol) on the issue of borders. control. “This meeting today was important for us to talk with representatives from Paraguay and Uruguay. The idea is to determine how we can work together on this issue. And also the issue of withdrawing the FMD vaccine from these countries. This is a long-term work. As countries in South America, we need to be concerned About removing the foot-and-mouth vaccination, because the world depends on us to feed us.”
Source: Ascom