The forum’s main objective is to discuss the new challenges and opportunities facing animal health and veterinary services in the Americas and beyond.
Asunción, April 9, 2024 (IICA). This week, on April 10 and 11, Paraguay will be hosting an inter-American summit on animal health. The participants will include ministers of agriculture of the Americas, the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and other high-level agricultural officials. The goal will be to strengthen coordination between animal health services and ministries across the continent and, by extension, the region’s role as a guarantor of global food security.
The international seminar “Animal health and its contribution to the transformation of food systems in the Americas,” which will be taking place in Asunción, is being organized by Paraguay’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and National Animal Quality and Health Service (SENACSA), and IICA.
It is the first time that Paraguay, an important player in the international animal protein market, will be hosting an event of this kind, which will be attended by the ministers and secretaries of agriculture, or their representatives, of the countries of the Americas and the heads of the continent’s animal health services.
The forum’s main objective is to discuss the new challenges and opportunities facing animal health and veterinary services in the Americas and beyond.
A series of panel discussions will address issues such as the future of animal health and its impact on food security, the transformation of animal agrifood systems, the role of animal health in agribusiness sustainability, and the impact on food security, public health and the environment. The role of veterinary services will also be analyzed in depth, which is why the presence in Asunción of ministers, animal health services, representatives of funding agencies such as the IDB, and the Director General of IICA, Manuel Otero, is so important.
It is thanks to the determination of the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Carlos Giménez, and the President of SENACSA, José Carlos Martín, that the meeting is being held in Paraguay, which is a reflection of the country’s growing importance as a global food supplier.
Issues such as new maps and threats of transboundary pests and diseases, avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease, and African swine fever will be addressed by senior officials from the animal health services of Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru and other countries, in addition to entities such as the Latin American Poultry Association (ALA), PANAFTOSA, IAGRO, WOAH, the Rural Association of Paraguay (ARP), OIRSA, and the Association of Pork Producers of Paraguay.
The strengthening of veterinary services, regional coordination efforts, and regional and public-private partnerships, will also be high on the agenda.
The seminar will be used to generate a public-private dialogue at the local, regional and hemispheric levels, promoting the adoption of joint positions on matters related to the strengthening of veterinary services, achieving interinstitutional collaboration and supporting the transformation of agrifood systems, in order to make them more resilient, productive, sustainable and inclusive.
The meeting will also bring together officials from the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), and representatives of the private sector and regional and international agencies.
The program for the event includes morning and afternoon sessions each day focusing on specific topics, with invited panelists discussing various aspects of animal health, transboundary diseases, the current situation of veterinary services, and future challenges in this area.
In October 2023, during the Conference of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas held at IICA Headquarters in Costa Rica, Paraguay’s MAG proposed that a hemispheric event be held in Asunción to analyze the “implications of agricultural health in the Americas.”
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
