PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
'The Veterinary profession is 250 years old'
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has declared this year the World Veterinary Year, marking the 250th anniversary of the introduction of the veterinary profession and veterinary science, a news release made available to PANA here Monday said.
In 1761, King Louis XV of France, troubled by the scourge of cattle disease, proposed that a veterinary school be founded in Lyon.
The year 2011 also marks the 300th anniversary of the development of the first measures designed to fight bovine diseases, measures that were formulated in the early 18th century by Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini and Giovanni Maria Lancisi, personal physician to Popes Innocent XI, Clement XI and Innocent XII.
The slogan adopted for this year's celebration is "Vet for health. Vet for food. Vet for the planet!", a motto that evokes the all-important role veterinarians play in safeguarding human and animal health, in working to enhance food security and in protecting the environment.
FAO, together with the European Union, is one of the principal institutional partners for this year of commemoration, organized by the VET 2011 committee, a body that brings together all the national veterinary organizations that have adhered to World Veterinary Year.
During the opening ceremony held Monday at Versailles, attended by high-ranking French and international public figures, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf emphasized the important role played by FAO - together with its member states and other concerned institutions - in the fight against the numerous zoonotic diseases threatening animals and animal products.
Diouf underlined the measures taken by FAO jointly with WHO and OIE (the World Animal Health Organisation) to fight the recent Avian Flu H5N1 pandemic, announcing that in only a few months time, FAO and OIE would be able to announce the total elimination from the planet of the bovine disease, rinderpest.
"This will be the first time in human history that a zoonotic disease will have been totally eradicated and only the second time, after the victory over smallpox, that any disease has been totally stamped out of existence," Diouf said.
The FAO Director-General emphasized the crucial role played by veterinary science, which, he said "has significantly reduced mankind's exposure to the risks of zoonotic diseases such as tuberculosis, brucellosis, or other animal flu viruses."
Diouf pointed out that "animal diseases, according to some estimates, cause losses of between 25 and 33 per cent in world animal production" adding that "the veterinary profession is constantly being forced to deal with new challenges such as new diseases affecting aquaculture and the effects of climate change.
"FAO has made animal health one of the pillars of its strategies," he disclosed.
FAO currently has 156 veterinarians working worldwide, who, along with general animal health, deal primarily with infectious diseases and parasites that affect domestic and wild animals.
-0- PANA PR/BOS 24Jan2011
In 1761, King Louis XV of France, troubled by the scourge of cattle disease, proposed that a veterinary school be founded in Lyon.
The year 2011 also marks the 300th anniversary of the development of the first measures designed to fight bovine diseases, measures that were formulated in the early 18th century by Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini and Giovanni Maria Lancisi, personal physician to Popes Innocent XI, Clement XI and Innocent XII.
The slogan adopted for this year's celebration is "Vet for health. Vet for food. Vet for the planet!", a motto that evokes the all-important role veterinarians play in safeguarding human and animal health, in working to enhance food security and in protecting the environment.
FAO, together with the European Union, is one of the principal institutional partners for this year of commemoration, organized by the VET 2011 committee, a body that brings together all the national veterinary organizations that have adhered to World Veterinary Year.
During the opening ceremony held Monday at Versailles, attended by high-ranking French and international public figures, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf emphasized the important role played by FAO - together with its member states and other concerned institutions - in the fight against the numerous zoonotic diseases threatening animals and animal products.
Diouf underlined the measures taken by FAO jointly with WHO and OIE (the World Animal Health Organisation) to fight the recent Avian Flu H5N1 pandemic, announcing that in only a few months time, FAO and OIE would be able to announce the total elimination from the planet of the bovine disease, rinderpest.
"This will be the first time in human history that a zoonotic disease will have been totally eradicated and only the second time, after the victory over smallpox, that any disease has been totally stamped out of existence," Diouf said.
The FAO Director-General emphasized the crucial role played by veterinary science, which, he said "has significantly reduced mankind's exposure to the risks of zoonotic diseases such as tuberculosis, brucellosis, or other animal flu viruses."
Diouf pointed out that "animal diseases, according to some estimates, cause losses of between 25 and 33 per cent in world animal production" adding that "the veterinary profession is constantly being forced to deal with new challenges such as new diseases affecting aquaculture and the effects of climate change.
"FAO has made animal health one of the pillars of its strategies," he disclosed.
FAO currently has 156 veterinarians working worldwide, who, along with general animal health, deal primarily with infectious diseases and parasites that affect domestic and wild animals.
-0- PANA PR/BOS 24Jan2011
