Yaoundé is hosting from April 3 to 5, 2024 the consultation meeting for the improvement of animal health in the Lake Chad episystem and the meeting of the consultative group for Central Africa.
In his opening speech, the Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries Dr. Taïga made a point of specifying all the political will of the public authorities to reduce, if not eradicate, PPR in our country with the 3 successive and free campaigns which will have made it possible to administer doses of vaccines free of charge thanks to local production by LANAVET under its own financing from the State of Cameroon with the support of certain financial partners. The cross-border nature of the disease requires an episystemic approach, "this meeting should enable the experts gathered here to find the supports for better awareness of all stakeholders on the PPR approach and encourage the countries of the Lake Chad area to commit to concrete actions for the eradication of the same in regional economic communities. Since 2018, Cameroon has committed itself throughout the national territory by carrying out non-paying vaccination of the entire livestock (sheep and goats) for three years, as well as the international red cross to contribute to the vaccination of young ruminants in conflict zones and continues to do so. Nearly 27 million doses of vaccines have been administered in recent years in Cameroon” clarification made by minepia.
He was delighted with the choice of Cameroon to host these meetings which took place presidentially and by videoconference because several delegations were unable to reach Yaoundé. In addition to experts from several countries, several speeches furnished the opening ceremony, namely that of the African Union which was represented by the head of the inter-African office of animal resources Dr. Hiver Boussini, representative of WHO, of Lassina Ouattara country team leader of the emergency center for the fight against cross-border diseases at FAO and executive secretary of the economic commission of livestock, meat and fisheries resources in the Cemac zone based in Chad.
The objective of the meeting is to: Raise awareness of the PPR episystem approach; Encourage countries surrounding the Lake Chad Basin to engage in action-oriented discussions, recognizing emergency risks related to PPR and how to manage these risks; Give certain representatives of regional economic communities the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the epi-system approach in order to implement it in their respective regions; Highlight the link between the epi system approach and the eradication of PPR, and make it exploitable; Approve and develop recommendations for integrating the epi system approach into eradication plans.
A lot of hope was based on these meetings with a view to contributing effectively in the coming days to the meeting of sub-regional communities in Morocco in Casablanca in the coming days under the aegis of the AU.
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Félix Njeumi, spécialiste de la santé animale coordinateur FAO
« There is talk of eradicating rinderpest and in 2011, we declared eradication. The lessons learned from rinderpest are being used for peste des petits ruminants. If I take the case of Cameroon, the minister mentioned three vaccination campaigns. We hope that countries will adopt this attitude because there is almost 90% humility, so the disease should no longer persist in small ruminants. If this is replicated in all African countries, in three years we will have eradicated the plague of small ruminants. We just need to collect the information and get approval that the country is free. In my capacity as SG of this global program, I am convinced because the donors are involved, the member countries support, the livestock owners support and all of civil society supports us. We are therefore confident that we can eradicate the disease by 2030. ».
Dr Hiver Boussini, responsable senior santé animale BIRA UA
« This office was created in 1951 to limit cross-border diseases. This is what even made it possible to eradicate rinderpest. Just after that, African countries came together to make the pest of small ruminants the next target when we know their importance in the economy and especially the employability of young people and the empowerment of women. As we say in the Sahelian countries, small ruminants constitute the wallet of populations in rural areas. The African Union, drawing on this experience, has developed the Pan-African program for the control and eradication of peste des petits ruminants which has been adopted by the heads of state since 2018, renewed in 2021 and most recently in February 2024 in Addis. Ababa. The overall cost is nearly 530 million including the contribution of member states around 30% and the AU has already mobilized 100 million euros from the EU including 10 million euros to initiate the implementation of the campaign African Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) eradication plan. In the very near future, regional coordination will be set up and the contribution of countries will be made to update not only their veterinary legislation but also their vaccination strategy for much greater efficiency and vaccination coverage. The particularity of Africa is animal mobility and pastoralism in conflict-prone areas, hence the identification of episystems and the Lake Chad basin being one of them, through the animal health center, coordination will be put in place because Central Africa, being a little late, remains a priority for the AU ».
Clément Noumsi
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