16th meeting of the REMESA Joint Permanent Committee - WOAH

Deputy Director General of the OIE, Dr Jean-Philippe Dop

Under the auspice of the co-presidency of France and Morocco – the Joint OIE and FAO secretariat (based in Tunis) – organised in collaboration with the Moroccan Authority the 16th meeting of the REMESA Joint Permanent Committee that was held in Morocco (Mohammedia) on 18-19 April 2018.

The meeting was co-chaired by Dr Abderrahman El Abrak (Chief Veterinary Officer of Morocco and OIE delegate) and Dr Loïc Evain (Chief Veterinary Officer of France and OIE delegate) who welcomed the participants by highlighting the importance of the REMESA network. The Deputy Director General of the OIE, Dr Jean-Philippe Dop, and the representative of the FAO, Dr Ahmed El Idrissi (Senior Animal Health Officer) also addressed the opening messages to the audience. OIE and FAO staff from Regional and Sub-Regional representations of Middle East and North Africa was also present.

The meeting was attended by about 40 people including the Chief Veterinary Officers of REMESA member countries or their representatives from Algeria, Egypt, France, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Spain, Greece and Tunisia) as well as the President (Dr Jean-Luc Angot) and an expert (Dr Fabrizio Rosso) from EuFMD. Representatives from Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail(ANSES), l’Ecole nationale des services vétérinaires (ENSV) Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM) and Istituto Superiore della Sanità (ISS) also participated in the meeting. The representative of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) participated in the meeting while the representative from the European Union could not attend the meeting.

Foot-and-mouth disease, Bluetongue, avian influenza, peste des petits ruminants, African horse sickness and rabies were discussed (including problems related to trade) as well as cross-cutting topics within the “One Health” theme (for instance, the antibiotic-resistance). REMESA remains an official platform of considerable importance to allow Mediterranean countries to share and plan activities in the field of animal health and public health veterinary in order to control trans-national diseases and to increase mutual trust among the various countries.

The next meeting will be held in France in the second semester 2018.