The Ministry of Agriculture through the Agricultural Export Diversification Programme has started a series of training programmes for technical officials of the animal health sector.
The first of a set of training exercises aims to standardise the techniques to be used in the testing and diagnosis of cattle for bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis and rabies, a press release from the Government Information Agency said.
It will be launching a countrywide campaign for the control and eradication of these zoonotic diseases in Guyana.
Guyana has a low prevalence of tuberculosis and bat-transmitted rabies in cattle while brucellosis has only been diagnosed once since in the 1940s.
The control and eradication campaign will involve testing all cattle in the country to officially establish the status of each disease and to institute programmes for their subsequent control and eradication by applying stringent quarantine measures that would involve more ongoing training of staff over the next six months.
This sequence of training exercises, which started last week Monday is part of a wide range of activities and measures the ministry is taking to boost cattle production. These exercises are expected to strengthen the Food Safety Sector to ensure compliance with the requirements of Guyana’s trading partners in agricultural products.
The training is being conducted by the International Consulting Firm, Agrotec Spa of Italy. The firm was hired to carry out the series of activities to improve the Agricultural Health and Food Safety System in Guyana.
Similar exercises will start shortly to upgrade the capacity of the staff of the Plant Health Unit at the ministry and the Veterinary Public Health and Food and Drug Departments at the Ministry of Health.
