DAFF invites world organisation to assess SA veterinary services

3 Oct 2012

The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) has invited the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) inspection team to conduct an assessment of the country's veterinary services in a concerted effort to ensure compliance with OIE international standards.

The OIE inspection team resumed its work on 1 October and will continue to 18 October, 2012. It will be dispatched across the country's provinces where it will carry out inspections and host meetings with farmers and stakeholders, including animal health-related business and relevant organisations.

One of the objectives of the OIE is to promote veterinary services of its member countries and territories to ensure that they are capacitated to meet their requirements in the control of animal and aquatic diseases as well as zoonosis. This helps to prevent introductions, outbreaks and spread of diseases in their respective territories and enables countries to meet the trade requirements with their respective trade partners.

Self-evaluation encouraged

The OIE encourages member countries to conduct self-evaluation of the state of their veterinary services in order to identify gaps and weaknesses using the OIE PVS Tool, which is designed to assist countries to establish their current level of performance, identify weaknesses and shortcomings in their ability to comply with OIE standards, to share a common vision with stakeholders and to establish priorities and carry out strategic initiatives.

This visit is not intended for trade directly, but rather to evaluate and take stock of the performance of the country's veterinary services across all spectrums both at provincial and national level.