OIE Twinning Namibia

Four members of the Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL) of Namibia attended a training programme on Food Safety at the G. Caporale Institute as a part of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) twinning project.

From the 6^th to the 24^th of February 2012, Georgina Kutaa, Lukas Lipumbu, Rosamunde Heita and Roderick M. Haraseb attended the Teramo headquarters laboratories as well as those of the Campobasso diagnostic division, to train on activities concerning screening and confirmatory tests for veterinary medicines, pesticides and heavy metal residues; detection and identification of pathogens in food and water; validation of analytical methods and quality assurance of analytical data.

The enhancement of the technical knowledge and expertise of the Namibian personnel   aims to allow CVL to become a Reference Laboratory for Food Safety and consequently reach the status of OIE Collaborating Centre. Such achievements will in turn allow the Central Veterinary Laboratory of Namibia, not only to satisfy local demand, but also to provide assistance to neighbouring countries, such as Botswana, Republic of South Africa and Swaziland.