The workshop, held jointly by China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), included a visit to the Jiangcun wholesale market in China’s Guangdong Province, which has been running under a “public-private partnership (PPP)” management model, launched by the MOA and FAO in April 2011.
The PPP programme focuses on developing schemes for upgrading and construction of facilities to improve biosecurity, encouraging the participation of both public and private sectors. Through the programme, Jiangcun market built a vehicle washing and disinfection station, introduced transportation facilities, improved animal welfare vaccination and offered training to management staff and poultry vendors.
The MAO said that these measures had “greatly enhanced” biosecurity awareness and practices, and the workshop allowed experts to assess the market’s success and analyse problems faced during implementation of the programme. This will feed into the development of best practice to be applied when the PPP model is rolled out nationwide.
Professor John Edward, senior technical coordinator and head of FAO’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) in China, attended the workshop and said that the programme at Jiangcun market would also provide valuable experience for other countries to learn from.
“The FAO ECTAD China office will further strengthen its partnership with MOA, continue to help biosecurity scheme implementation at live poultry markets, and facilitate China’s efforts in safeguarding public health and food safety,” he said.
Other workshop attendees included representatives from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC), China’s Animal Health & Epidemiology Center (CAHEC), experts from provinces and municipalities affected by the H7N9 human outbreak and other ECTAD China staff.