COLOMBIA: Country Will Request OIE Health Certificate After FMD Outbreak

(RTTNews) - Colombia's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Aurelio Iragorri will meet in France with delegates of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to ask that the South American country regain its sanitary status after eradicating a recent foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.

Last month, the Colombian Agricultural and Livestock Institute (ICA) confirmed that 3,325 livestock slaughterings occurred in the municipalities of Tame, Arauca, Yacopí and Tibacuy in the department of Cundinamarca and also in the rural area of Cúcuta, near the border with Venezuela. The minister said that since then there had been no further outbreaks.

Iragorri will be accompanied by an ICA technical team, which will discuss issues related to animal protection, epidemiological and logistical coordination that took place in the emergency response to foot-and-mouth disease.