Welcome page of COHEFA 13

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13th Meeting of the Hemispheric Committee on Foot-and-Mouth Disease Eradication (COHEFA 13) will be held in Asuncion, Paraguay, on 19 July 2016.

COHEFA 13 will take place in the half of the PHEFA´s 2011-2020 Action Plan implemention, when four years has passed since the last occurrence of FMD outbreak in free zones and three years without notification of new cases in non-free zones. Given those facts, PHEFA has reached the final stage of the eradication of the disease on the Continent that is forecasted to 2020. It also means that its challenges will demand the strengthening of technical cooperation and assessment of the strategies aligned for this last stage.

The representatives of the subregions of COHEFA 13 during this meeting, according to its mandate, will discuss the regional situation of FMD and its commitments to implement the Action Plan 2011-2020 of PHEFA in each subregion. The resolutions of COHEFA13 will be presented to the Ministers that will participate in the 17th Inter American Ministerial Meeting on Health and Agriculture (RIMSA 17), which will be held at the same venue, on 21 and 22 July 2016, to strengthen the political willingness of the concerned sectors, in providing support for the fight against FMD in the Americas.

COHEFA was created in 1987 by the countries of the Americas and its purpose is to strength the political commitment, developing strategies and lines of action, and managing resources to attain the goals established in the Hemispheric Program for the Eradication of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (PHEFA), and it is comprised of the Ministers of Agriculture and the representatives of livestock producers from the subregions: Amazon, North America, Andean, Caribbean, Mesoamerican and Southern Cone.

The Pan American Center for Foot-and-Mouth Disease  (PANAFTOSA) of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) organizes COHEFA 13 meeting, with the support and sponsorship of the Government of Paraguay, through the “Ministerio de Salud Pública e Bienestar Social” (MSPBS), "Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería” (MAG) and the “Servicio Nacional de Calidad y Salud Animal”  (SENACSA).