IZSAM in Angola for the optimization of the meat production chain

Massimo Scacchia, who is responsible for the Animal Health sector of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G.Caporale” (IZSAM), went to Angola from the 13th to the 22nd of November 2014 for several meetings concerning the public health project, which started in July 2014 in the province of Huìla. The project is entirely financed by the Republic of Angola with approximately 7 million dollars and is part of the technical and scientific collaboration agreement signed by the Governor of Huìla and the Abruzzo Region in 2010: the current regional government is particularly committed in such activity as evidenced by the announcement of the President of the Abruzzo Region, Luciano D’Alfonso, who planned an institutional visit in the African country on February 2015.

With the coordination and support of the Marco Di Martino Onlus of Pescara, IZSAM plays a technical and scientific role aiming at optimizing the production chain of meat through the activation or renovation of the municipal slaughterhouses and butcheries, the technology supply for the proper storage of meat in all the distribution and marketing stages, the training of the operators, as well as the advice on the identification and registration system of animals: about 1.500.000 bovines in the Angolan province will be identified and registered thanks to a software designed in Teramo.

In Luanda, Doctor Scacchia met the Angolan FAO delegate and the Director of the Instituto dos Serviços de Veterinária, Antonio José, to whom he showed the ear tags to be used in the pilot project, which will start in the middle of February at the same time of the vaccination campaign for the Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia. Again in Luanda, Doctor Scacchia visited the Italian Ambassador of Angola, Giorgio Di Pietrogiacomo, to solicit further collaboration agreements between the Angolan Department and the Italian Ministry of Health. In Lubango a technical meeting was held to make the point of the situation and a meeting with the deputy governor of finance of the province of Huìla was held in the presence of the coordinator and the responsible of the project, Aldo Di Clemente of the Di Martino Onlus. Afterwards, Doctor Scacchia moved to Humpata to meet the General Director of the Instituto de Investigação Veterinária and to start to establish the basis for a future collaboration concerning the exotic diseases.

The visit in Angola ended with the officialization of the extension of the public health project to the neighbouring Province of Namibia bordering the Atlantic Ocean. On the 21st of November in Namibia, Mr. Di Clemente of the Di Martino Onlus together with Doctor Scacchia met Doctor Alcides, deputy governor of finance of the province of Namibia. He confirmed that from January 2015, the Namibian government will start paying the necessary sums to extend the project to his own territory.