High-level Ministerial Meeting on African Swine Fever

FAO Director for Animal Production and Health, Thanawat Tiensin visited Brussels to represent FAO at a High-level Ministerial Meeting on African Swine Fever organized by the European Commission and the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union in Brussels on 27 September.

Opening the high-level event, Stella Kyriakides European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety stressed three priorities of EU action in the fight against African Swine Fever: stepping up collective efforts in raising awareness, vigilance and preparedness on ASF; improving the management of wild boar populations; and, most importantly, supporting and promoting research and development of a vaccine for ASF. “The impact of African Swine Fever (ASF) is a devastating disease, which concerns us all in Europe and globally,” said the Commissioner.

Director Tiensin intervened during the event and provided the audience with updates on the current spread of the disease and the efforts in research and development to create a vaccine. He further talked about FAO`s role in supporting Members with the control of ASF through the FAO Emergency Management Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD).

In Europe, FAO has teamed up with modeling experts from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) and a disease control specialist from the Lithuanian State Food and Veterinary Service to optimize the search for wild boar carcasses. You can read more about this initiative here.

More information about FAO’s work on Animal Health can be found here.