On Tuesday 23 August, the 5th meeting of the GF-TADs Standing Group of Experts on African Swine Fever (SPG-SF) for the Americas was held virtually. The meeting was attended by members of the veterinary services, members of the most relevant international organisations in the region, and private sector partners from the Ibero-American pork value chain.
The objective of the meeting was to learn about the ASF situation in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and the status of implementation of the action plan, derived from the regional strategy against ASF. In addition, the results of the risk analysis of ASF virus introduction and of a simulation exercise on the reception of suspected ASF samples, developed by FAO, the latter in collaboration with OIRSA, in the Central American region, were presented.
Representatives of international organisations participated in a round table discussion on the main challenges posed by the reintroduction of the ASF virus in the Region and their vision for the medium and long term.
Given that Canada and the United States have recently been designated to have their facilities serve as reference laboratories for ASF diagnosis, the procedures, and requirements for countries to submit suspect samples to confirm or rule out ASF outbreaks in their territories were presented. This designation facilitates and expedites timely diagnosis, making optimal use of available resources.
Some of the recommendations of the standing group of experts include:
For the countries
· Enhance cross-border cooperation, in the framework of ASF prevention, control and eradication.
· Long-term planning and coordinated mobilisation of financial and logistical resources.
For the international organisations
· Continue using the GF-TADs framework as the main mechanism of coordination and collaboration.
· Promote public-private collaboration to address the threat posed by ASF.
· To incorporate the activities from the SGE-ASF and the SGE-CSF, promoting their merge as Standing Group of Experts in transboundary swine diseases SGE-TSD.
Click here to access the complete list of recommendations.
Click here to access the list of participants
Click bellow for the presentations:
| Time | Topic | Coordinator / Speaker | |
| 09:00 | 5 min | Wellcome | Dr Jaspinder Komal |
| 09:05 | 15 min | ASF situation in Dominican Republic | Dominican Republic |
| 09:20 | 15 min | ASF situation in Haiti | Dr Haim Joseph – WOAH Delegate from Haiti |
| 09:35 | 15 min | FAO’s Risk analisis on ASF | Dr Andriy Rozstalnyy – FAO |
| 09:50 | 10 min | Report of the ASF Working Group | Dr Charmaine Chng – Scientific Coordinator – WOAH Science Department |
| 10:00 | 60 min | Interactive session:
|
Zoom poll – each Member country |
| 11:00 | 20 min | Regulation in the shipping of samples for ASF diagnosis | Representatives from: |
| 11:20 | 10 min | Challenges in the shipping of samples for ASF diagnosis | Representative from Guatemala |
| 11:30 | 10 min | BREAK | |
| 11:40 | 45 min | Regional and Subregional Organizations – Round table:
|
Moderators:
Dr Luis Barcos – WOAH Dr Andrés González-Serrano – FAO RLC Next steps |
| 12:25 | 15 min | Private sector activities | OIPORC |
| 15 min | Private sector challenges and opportunities | American Group for ASF Prevention | |
| 12:50 | 10 min | Merge of activities for ASF and CSF SGE’s | Dr Catya Martinez Rivas – WOAH |
| 13:00 | 10 min | Announcement of next planned activities | Dr Andrés González Serrano & Dr Catya Martinez |
| 13:10 | 5 min | Recommendation | Dr Andrés González Serrano & Dr Catya Martinez |
| 13:15 | 5 min | Final remarks | Dr Jaspinder Komal |
