EU assists in veterinary vaccination campaign

TIRANA, April 10 – A national vaccination campaign was launched to vaccinate more than 2.2 million small ruminants in the whole country against brucellosis in a campaign which is part of a 5.7 million euro project funded by the European Union to improve consumer protection of zoonotic diseases.
The project tackles the technical and administrative capacities of the state veterinary service to plan and effectively implement appropriate measures for the eradication and control of such diseases.
With 60 percent of human diseases originating from animal diseases, animal health is not only an economic issue of the farming family and therefore of consumers, but also a serious public health issue. Every year Albania records several hundred cases of people affected by brucellosis– a much higher proportion of the population being affected compared to the entire EU. The vaccination of small ruminants (sheep and goats) is expected to produce a strong reduction of brucellosis in animals and especially humans.
Such action is part of the EU support to veterinary services in Albania (as required in Article 95 of the Stabilization and Association Agreement) and to strengthen their capacities to adopt in practice the principles governing the EU food safety policy: “from stable to table” and “one health”.
Head of the EU Delegation to Albania Ettore Sequi said that “the EU plans to support the repetition of similar vaccination campaigns against brucellosis in small ruminants for few years until the confirmed cases are reduced drastically.”
Sequi said that long-term success in both farm economics and health will depend on increased awareness of the importance of animal disease eradication policy of all actors involved in the food chain; strong and continuous cooperation between public health surveillance, food safety authorities and veterinary controls; and last but not least, on adequate staffing of the responsible institutions, particularly those at the central level.
In the last 4 years, the EU has allocated more than 27 million euro to support agriculture in Albania in the areas of veterinary, food safety and rural development. In the veterinary sector EU funds have enabled the preparation of strategies for the control and eradication of zoonotic diseases, the development of the farm register, better animal identification and registration and harmonization with animal health databases.