The federal government has pledged $660,000 toward South American governments’ bids to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
The funding, announced Thursday in Buenos Aires by Alberta MP Ted Menzies, will go toward contributions of lab equipment and training in FMD diagnostic tools over the next two years. These tools include computer simulation modeling to assess, predict and help stem future FMD outbreaks.
Menzies, also a grain farmer from Claresholm, Alta., made the announcement at a meeting with senior Argentinean ag officials.
“We recognize that international co-operation is an increasingly critical component of managing and eradicating global animal disease threats,” said Menzies, a past president of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, in a release.
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“In addition, by addressing emerging diseases and other threats beyond our borders, we can increase security for the Canadian public and economy,” said federal Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier in Thursday’s press release.
FMD is a highly communicable viral disease affecting cattle, swine, sheep, goats, deer and other cloven-hoofed ruminants. Canada has been free of FMD since 1952.
Canada’s contribution is being delivered in co-operation with the Pan-American Health Organization’s FMD Centre for South America and the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture of the Organization of American States (OAS).
