Glanders Poses a Serious Health Risk says OIE
Glanders is an infectious disease that mainly affects horses and poses a serious health risk to animals and even humans. The investigation found that sometimes weak and early detection and laboratory diagnosis capacity combined with under reporting of the disease, facilitated spread of glanders in the region.
“Glanders is a re-emerging disease against which many countries in the Middle East are not armed. The OIE stands for strengthening national Veterinary Services and urges the concerned governments to rely on them in the fight against the disease,” Dr Vallat, OIE Director General, said. “We particularly appreciated Bahrein's transparency in quickly notifying the presence of the disease to the OIE earlier this year and we are confident that the country's huge surveillance efforts will lead to a very quick restoration of its freedom disease status, once the last investigations currently in progress in a small part of the country are completed” he added.
The OIE mission indicated that disease investigations carried out by private veterinarians independently often prevented official veterinary authorities from monitoring the circulation of the disease in the region, thus preventing timely and appropriate action.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
