IZSAM in Zambia

From the 25th to the 28th of November 2014, the “2nd SADC Sub-Regional CBPP Network Meeting” of Livingstone was held in Zambia. Around 30 participants coming from five African countries (Zambia, Namibia, Angola, Tanzania e Botswana), Italy and the UK, took part in the event .

As representative of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale” (IZSAM), Doctor Massimo Scacchia covered the role of moderator of the session concerning the control of CBPP and presented the global situation of the disease, the state of art of the research done by IZSAM on CBPP and the project involving IZSAM in the Angolan province of Huila.

On the occasion of the meeting, Doctor Scacchia delivered to the vice CVO, Kabilica, and the Director of research, Anna Shilongo from Zambia, the first ear tags, which will be applied to bovine as soon as the agreement between the veterinary services Directorate of IZSAM will pass the control of the legal Office of the Ministry of Agriculture of the African country.

In 2012, the National Veterinary Laboratory (NVL) has been recognized as OIE Reference Laboratory for CBPP as a result of a Twinning between the laboratory and IZSAM. Immediately after it, a network of national laboratories has been established, which is financed by AU-IBAR, and involves Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and both the OIE Reference Laboratories (NVL of Gaborone and IZSAM), who coordinate the activities. The goal of the network is to discuss about the control of CBPP and the standardization of the diagnostic activities concerning the disease, with particular concern to the standardization and validation of microbiological and serological methods, to the research and publication of the data produced. The “2nd SADC Sub-Regional CBPP Network Meeting” is part of the network activities.