Veterinary Public Health

Since the early 1970s, the PAHO/WHO Veterinary Public Health (VPH) program has been applying veterinary skills and knowledge to advance human health.

In the last ten years between 60% and 75% of human diseases (globally) have been caused by pathogens arising from animals and animal products. The VPH program at the Office of Caribbean Program Coordination (OCPC) has therefore been providing support to member States to address sub-regional policies and program planning and the adoption of measures to ensure that appropriate structures and persons are are available to make timely interventions.

The areas of concern to the Veterinary Public Health Program can be summarized as:

• Safety of foods for human consumption with emphasis on foods of animal origin
• Prevention and control of food-borne diseases
• Prevention and control of zoonoses of public health importance
• Strengthening of Animal Disease Surveillance Programs to facilitate public health prevention and control strategies
• Promotion of animal health to boost production, and enhance food security and socioeconomic development
• Promotion of environmental protection to minimize public health risks from the impact of animal health and production programs
• Development and promotion of biomedical models for health research

Strategic Planning

The VPH program at the OCPC has been making strides within the Caribbean sub-region in matters related to:

Technical cooperation is provided to sub-regional countries to reduce breeches in food safety, ranging from food contamination at the farm to [something at] the processing, manufacturing, preparation and distribution levels. The VPH program assists Member States in identifying and addressing food safety challenges caused by

• improper handling and unhygienic practices,
• animal contamination of the environment, and
• manufacturing or industry-driven activities (meat inspection, the use of food additives.)

Since the early 1990s, much work has been done in supporting countries to adopt principles associated with the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) methodology.

Other VPH concerns include:

• public health risks arising during or after natural disasters from zoonotic or other diseases;
• monitoring the disposal of carcasses;
• handling surviving animals (inclusive of feeding and rearing); and
• prevention of accidents associated with animal bites (including snake bites and poisonings).

Considering that over thirty human cases of leptospirosis were associated with the 2005 flooding in Guyana, the sub-regional VPH program has been intensified to work with in the reduction of human infections/diseases (zoonoses) that can occur during or after such disasters, and to implement a preventive strategy based on minimizing endemic zoonoses through Interventions at the pre-disaster stage.