The first ever international forum on African Swine Fever (ASF) wrapped up in Ottawa on Wednesday.

Over 150 leaders and decision makers from government and industry from 15 countries shared their expertise, engaged in productive discussions, and contributed to developing strategies to address ASF, which is a serious animal disease impacting swine herds in Europe and Asia.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) for Canada, Dr. Jaspinder Komal, accompanied by Dr. Jack Shere, Chief Veterinary Officer for the United States and  Dr. Juan Gay Gutierrez, Chief Veterinary Officer for Mexico offered the following statement.

"Jointly, we have developed a framework that will support ongoing international collaboration and action in the areas of preparedness planning, enhanced biosecurity, business continuity, and coordinated risk communications."

This framework lays the foundation for:

- A high state of readiness to swiftly control ASF should it enter the Americas region
- Strengthening biosecurity measures to prevent the entry of ASF and mitigate its spread
- Establishing agreements in the swine sector to mitigate the trade impacts of ASF
- Effective communications to best inform Canadians and our neighbouring countries about the risk of ASF
- Through our dialogue over the past two days, we have also identified several key partnerships and governance options to advance the implementation of the jointly developed framework at the regional, or the Americas level, as well as at the sub-regional and national levels.

Canada is the third-largest pork exporting country in both value and volume and represents about 20% of world pork trade. In 2017, 1.2 million tonnes of Canadian pork valued at $4 billion were exported to over 100 countries.

This week conversations continue at the Executive Board meeting of the World Organization of Animal Health's (OIE) Regional Commission of the Americas which are also being held in Ottawa.

The developed framework will add to the discussions about the advancement of a global strategy on ASF happening in May at the 87th OIE General Session and with the Chief Veterinary Officers of the G7.

The statement went on to say, "Given that the Americas are currently free of ASF, we have an opportunity now to continue to act decisively and collaboratively to increase awareness around ASF, fill in gaps that have been identified, and proactively negotiate partnerships and agreements to aid in our approach to the disease."

Mexico has offered to host the next forum on ASF.

 

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