The battle against FMD has moved beyond Argentine borders, and authorities
from the Argentine National Health Agency (Senasa) are digging into trenches not only in the Mercosur region but also around the world.
The plan for eradicating the disease was presented by Argentine health
authorities to Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay and Chile. The goal is to set up a regional campaign for eliminating the virus not only from local rodeos, but also from all of South America. The impossibility of controlling
the entrance of the virus from one country to another is the main reason for facing it as a group.
The agreements between health organizations are based on establishing a detailed contact mechanism involving health
agents, security forces and international relations departments. Such a system would allow an epidemiological control that contemplates developments in Argentina.
Argentine Secretary of Agriculture, Marcelo
Regúnaga, showed his optimism to the press when he sustained that in less than a month "we have reorganized the bond between the national government, the provinces and foundations", which will allow the eradication of
the disease in Argentine rodeos.
The Argentine agricultural and health authority's project is focused on following the steps Argentina took 10 years ago, with the goal of reaching the certification "free of
aftose fever without vaccination" from the International Office of Epizooties (OIE). The nucleus of the program includes group measures by the public and private sector.
Options
As authorities from
Senasa travel around the world with the intention of clearing the image of that organization and regaining international trust, some voices criticized the Argentine health situation.
One of the statements that caused
most discomfort was the one made by the Chief of Animal Health Services of the OIE, Yves Cheneau, during the international scientific conference on FMD held in Paris and sponsored by OIE and the United Nations
Organization for Agriculture and Food (FAO). At that opportunity, Cheneau sustained that after the arrival of the disease in Argentina, "the situation is terrible".
Cheneau exposed to the international community that
one third of Argentine territory is now vaccinating in order to control the disease.
E-campo.com
