August 12, 2022

Health authorities from the United States and Canada will visit Colombia to assess the national foot-and-mouth disease eradication program

Bogota DC August 12, 2022. Con miras de continuar el proceso para la exportación de carne bovine a los Estados Unidos y Canada, Colombia will receive the visit in el mes de septiembre del Servicio de Inspección de Salud Animal y Vegetal (APHIS) del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA) ), for its acronyms in English.


Colombia will demonstrate its sanitary solidity and the progress of the program for the prevention and eradication of foot-and-mouth disease and, in this way, will obtain the admissibility of this product in these markets.


ICA received the last APHIS visit from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2015.


Based on the FMD outbreaks recorded in the second half of 2018, in 2019 the Institute reviewed and modified the national FMD program and regionalized the country, three border areas were established to mitigate health risks.


This regionalization strategy and the overall functioning of the disease eradication program will be presented to APHIS during the risk assessment visit which will take place in September.


The APHIS delegation will be divided into three groups, the first will travel to the departments of Córdoba and Bolívar, visiting farms, ICA offices, processing plants, the port of Cartagena and concentration sites of ‘animals.


The second group of the delegation will work during the same week in the departments of La Guajira, Bolívar and Atlántico, visiting checkpoints, ICA offices, properties, processing plants and the port of Cartagena.


The visit of the USDA APHIS delegation will last until the end of September this year, when a third group will visit the facilities of the ICA, INVIMA and POLFA/DIAN Integrated Center (CIIIP), as well as the National Diagnostic Laboratory veterinarian (LNDV) and the Vaccine Production Laboratories.


Similarly, the progress of the traceability platform (SINIGAN) delivered in August will be presented to the committee and the implementation pilot in progress will also be presented.


It should be mentioned that there will be a visit by an official from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), with whom it is planned to move forward in parallel with the admissibility of meat products in this country. .