FAO supports strengthening of Lao veterinary legislation
(KPL) A workshop on Gap Analysis of the Animal Health Legislation and Prioritisation of the Subsidiary Laws was recently held.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) held a two-day workshop in Vientiane on 21-22 July 2010 as part of an ongoing veterinary legislation reform following the introduction in the Lao PDR of the first Livestock Production and Veterinary Law in 2008.
The objective of the workshop was to discuss the gap analysis of the current animal health legislation of the Lao PDR and to identify constraints and deficiencies in the legislation framework and the legal provisions. The event was attended by Dr Sithong Phiphakhavong, Deputy Director General of the Department of Livestock and Fisheries, government officials from the Department of Livestock and Fisheries in Vientiane and livestock officers from eight provinces.
Until the release of the Livestock Production and Veterinary Law in July 2008, animal disease control in the Lao PDR operated at the level of ministerial decrees, technical regulations and instructions. Although useful, these legal instruments generally lack the power and flexibility needed for better disease prevention and control, such as the ability to impose quarantine on suspicious diseases and authority to cull infected animals as part of the stamping out of policy to control the spread of disease.
“FAO is committed to helping the Lao Government to strengthen the Veterinary Legislation”, says Dr. Tri Naipospos, Senior Technical Coordinator for the FAO Avian Influenza Programme in the Lao PDR. “The Veterinary Law introduced in 2008 was a significant step forward in addressing animal health issues by establishing an improved regulatory framework to strengthen Lao veterinary services and to set out improved disease control measures including animal and animal product movement controls, bio-security and hygienic standards for meat and meat products. However, despite the human, material and financial resources needed for the national veterinary services to function properly, the country should complete the whole regulatory framework as a means to increase authority of each element in the system to implement and enforce the overall policies and strategies”.
“An important step in the enhancement of legal provisions in the Lao PDR is to review and identify the shortcomings of the current Veterinary Law using a gap analysis procedure, then this could be used to reform the regulatory basis for disease prevention and control and also to cover all legal aspects comprehensively to guarantee that all the powers and measures necessary for fully effective disease control are available to the government veterinary services”, says Dr. Ian Robertson, facilitator for the two-day Workshop and Veterinary Policy and Legislation and an expert from the Regional FAO office in Bangkok.
During the workshop key recommendations were made about secondary law prioritisation based on the country’s current needs under the framework of the Veterinary Law. This would result in a stronger regulatory environment that would enable the implementation of a national strategy to address and fight not only against Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) but also other possible Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) in the Lao PDR.
The activity is part of FAO’s Strengthening Regional Capacity to Control and Eradicate Avian Influenza HPAI in Asia and the Pacific project supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Immediate Technical Assistance to Strengthen Emergency Preparedness for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) project supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
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