EU Commission announces new animal health strategy
Markos Kyprianou, the European Union’s Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner, has announced plans for an animal health strategy designed to improve the prevention and control of animal diseases in the EU, such as the outbreak of avian flu in Asia that currently carries the potential to cause a global pandemic. “The devastating social and economic consequences of diseases like foot-and-mouth disease or avian influenza demonstrate the importance of a strong and effective animal health policy at EU level,” stated the Commissioner.
Animal disease outbreaks are costly, there are ethical issues related to the mass slaughter of animals as well as growing concerns about the potential impact of certain animal diseases on human health. To tackle these, the strategy will create a policy of disease prevention, make emergency vaccination a more viable option, create new diagnostic tests, an improved multi-disciplinary research capacity, simplify the legislation, and finance new actions. Driven by industry, the initiative is to improve animal health and welfare, food safety, human health and market access.
The European Commission intends to adopt a Communication on animal health in 2007 setting out actions for 2007 to 2013. All interested parties will be invited to support the process to create overarching guidelines to consolidate existing efforts and to foster the adoption and implementation of new key measures.
