Foot and mouth disease simulation exercise in Castilla La Mancha, Spain
During 19 and 20 November 2012 a foot and mouth disease (FMD) simulation exercise in real time has been organized in the region of Castilla La Mancha with the colaboration between , the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA), the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha and our group SUAT-VISAVET.
In that exercise, clinical symptoms compatible with the disease have been reproduced in a private cattle breeding farm located in the town of Talavera de la Reina (Toledo. The activities of different services involved have been monitoring, from the private veterinarians, veterinary services from MAGRAMA, sample taking and sending to National Reference Laboratory (LCV Algete) and the communication of suspicion.
This simulation exercise had been previously reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the European Commission.
This field simulation exercise, aims mainly at reviewing and verifying the National and Autonomous emergency plans, the control measures and the eradication of a FMD outbreak in Spain with a view to identifying improvements to be made in the plans, instructions, structures and procedures.
The specific objectives of this simulation exercise are the following:
- Evaluate the coordination between the MAGRAMA and the Autonomous Communities (CCAA) when facing a notification of an FMD outbreak in Spain;
- Evaluate the existence and/or the efficiency of the MAGRAMA and CCAA contingency plans for FMD;
- Evaluate the veterinary services capacity of the CCAA to identify the farms susceptible to be affected by an FMD outbreak;
- Evaluate the veterinary services actions of the CCAA in case they need to send potentially FMD infected samples to a laboratory;
- Evaluate the response of the National reference laboratory in case of reception of the FMD samples.
Yesterday afternoon (20th of November) the field simulation ended with a press conference where the Deputy Director General of Primary Production Sanitary Safety, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA), the Director General of Agriculture and Livestock of Castilla-La Mancha and Prof. Jose Manuel Sanchez-Vizcaino, explained the key points of the exercise.
The new in the media: OIE / MAGRAMA / Castilla-La Mancha / Europapress / 20minutos / Qué / La Tribuna de Toledo / Terra / teinteresa.es / Agro información / La cerca / Radio Surco / Ferias y mercados