Veterinary Public Health

Achievements:

Opportunities have been created, through fostering alliances, to address political, technical and logistical concerns that affect trade and public health, inclusive of sub-regional issues related to

• policy, legislation,
• capacity building,
• laboratory support,
• risk assessment,
• risk communication and risk management,
• information systems and
• surveillance among other program areas.

In this regard, the competent authorities/experts in animal health, veterinary public health and environmental health have been meeting on a regular basis since December 2003, with support from PAHO/OCPC and networking with the CARICOM Secretariat to make recommendations on current and emerging VPH issues in strengthening animal health and food safety systems and infrastructure.

The Fourth Joint Meeting of the Chief Veterinary Officers, Chief Environmental Health Officers and Chief Veterinary Public Health Officers in Georgetown, Guyana, March 23-24 2005, considered ways to devise systems and mechanisms for more proactive, sub-regional representation internationally on animal health and sanitary issues; for greater collaboration in converging relevant measures, procedures and standards in safeguarding the health of animal human populations in the Caribbean from threats arising from agricultural trade; strengthening the emergency preparedness measures prior to and consequent on natural disasters and emergencies; and to support and facilitate relevant private sector industry needs.

The Joint Meeting Series on Animal Disease Surveillance and Preparedness hosted by PAHO April 3-7, 2006, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago focused on Avian Influenza (AI) in the Caribbean; specifically

• strengthening the CaribVET network, led by CIRAD, Guadeloupe
• planning and preparation for Avian Influenza in animals, co-hosted by HO, IICA, and the CARICOM Secretariat with input from CARDI and the Caribbean Poultry Association (CPA)
• hosted by the CARICOM Secretariat and PAHO/OCPC and attended by Chief Veterinary Officers, Chief Environmental Health Officers and Directors of Veterinary Public Health (CVOs/CEHOs/DVPH).

A standard certification process for food handlers - a success story with the Barbados Community College (BCC), the Ministry of Health, and the Pan American Health Organization partnering to establish a cadre of Food Safety Trainers certified by the college and now conducting all training for BCC certification of food handlers. A sub-regional forum is to be launched to address similar certification issues in the region, with potential for easy movement of trained persons within the sub-region.

While the Caribbean is considered free of many emerging diseases, controls are essential to prevent their introduction into the Caribbean sub-region. Through a TCC project of PAHO/WHO, selected Caribbean countries (Barbados, The Bahamas, Dominica, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago)are piloting the application of draft guidelines (May 2004) in port health surveillance and management at the national level. The overall objective of the project is to reduce potential public health risks from the movement of persons and goods at ports of entry.

In response to threats posed by the global occurrence of Avian Influenza, since February 2006, PAHO/WHO in association with Ministries of Health and Agriculture, and the Caribbean Poultry Association (CPA) has conducted workshops in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas on Risks, Crisis and Pre-Crisis Communication for Avian Influenza and a potential Human Pandemic Influenza. PAHO/Headquarters convened a meeting in July 2006 for communication and public education personnel to strengthen risk communication skills and develop a region-wide network of risk communicators.

Other Interventions

From February to April, 2006 PAHO OCPC and CAREC carried out an assessment of veterinary laboratories in The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago seeking to provide assistance in building laboratory capacity. The assessment was a response to a proposal from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of the West Indies to establish a Caribbean Veterinary Laboratory Network to ensure appropriate sub-regional capacity for basic diagnosis of animal diseases, particularly AI.