Research units
Mediterranean and Tropical Livestock Systems Emerging and Exotic Animal Disease ControlWhen veterinary surgeons start talking about food security!
27/05/2011 - Press release
The 79th General Session of the World Assembly of OIE Delegates was held from 22 to 27 May 2011 in Paris (France). Two technical items of general interest were presented by rapporteurs chosen for their international competency: the contribution of veterinary activities to global food security for food derived from terrestrial animals, and implementation of a global strategy for FMD control.
Three researchers from CIRAD and another from INRA* presented the first item, "the contribution of veterinary activities to global food security for food derived from terrestrial animals". A summary is given below:
A griculture now faces the challenge of feeding nine billion people in forty years or so, while preserving the Earth's resources. The growth in demand for food in a context of global change calls for a major shift in practice, from a purely productivist agriculture to one centring on ecological intensification.
However, food security is not restricted to the quantitative aspect of food. True food security means guaranteed access to safe, nutritious food that satisfies people's needs and preferences and allows for an active, healthy life.
Animal production makes a major contribution as a source of nutritionally valuable energy, proteins and micro-nutrients, and by generating income for players involved in production, processing and marketing on a national and international level, and contributing to the GDP of the countries concerned.
Any health problems or contamination that occurs in animal production and supply chains therefore has complex repercussions all the way along the food chain, from production site to plate.
As a result, the veterinary sector is one of the guarantors of the stability and planned evolution of the global food system, through its operations at every stage of that system: production on farms, processing, and product distribution and marketing on a national and international level.
The answers to a questionnaire distributed by the OIE to veterinary services in its 178 member countries showed that all those countries had introduced an institutional, legislative and technical framework intended to structure veterinary operations. However, the funds and human resources allocated differ substantially between industrialized and developing countries, with chronic under-investment in the poorest countries, illustrated by the fact that for more than 60% of countries, annual State investment in the relevant fields amounts to less than US$ 2 per inhabitant.
The main two categories of activities centring on animal health management
and food safety
are organized conventionally, with surveillance, control, traceability and laboratory analysis systems involving public and private partners. Their levels of activity and operationality, which depend directly on the resources allocated, also differ between rich and poor countries.
The view expressed by the majority of veterinary services surveyed was that their activities had a significant impact on food security, which was relatively homogeneous over the four components of food security: availability, accessibility, utilization and sustainability.
Almost all the countries wanted the OIE to work more closely with them in the field of food security while stepping up its work on the influence of animal production on environmental change.
* CIRAD: Pascal Bonnet, Renaud Lancelot, Dominique Martinez
INRA: Henri Seegers
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