Chief Veterinary Officers and experts from the Governments of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan today sat around a table in Tehran to form the first Quadrilateral collaboration meeting for addressing Transboundary Animal Diseases and strengthen harmonized actions on this issue.

According to a press release by the FAO Representation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, In his opening remarks, Mr. Nabil Gangi, the FAO Deputy Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa highlighted the fact that the livestock sector plays a decisive role in the economic growth of the participant countries.

He underscored that unfortunately these days the threat becomes more eminent and important under the impact of natural or man-made crises in the conflict zones, causing significant migration of rural/nomadic people to the neighboring countries that disrupts the animal health control mechanisms by the host governments.

“Currently protracted conflicts affect many countries in the region that have driven millions of people into severe food insecurity and they are hindering regional and global efforts to eradicate malnutrition, and hunger” added Mr. Gangi who also acts as the FAO Representative ad interim to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

FAO Representative to Afghanistan, Mr. Tomio Shichiri as the key speaker of the event also reiterated that one of the relevant aspects of the meeting that makes it so unique is the participation of technical expert teams for diagnosis and identification of animal disease, epidemiology and disease prevention and response measures, and cross-border control of animal movement and its products. 

At the global and regional levels FAO is working to enhance prevention of transboundary animal and animal-related human diseases in partnership with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The two-day (28-29 November 2017) Quadrilateral Meeting of Chief Veterinary Officers (CVOs) of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan was organized jointly by the FAO Representations in Iran and Afghanistan through close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) of Afghanistan, supported by the Iranian Veterinary Organization (IVO), Ministry of Agriculture Jahad of the Islamic Republic of Iran.