OIE National Focal Points for Veterinary Products and Aquatic Animal Health from English speaking Africa converge for the 7th cycle.

The OIE National  Focal Points for Veterinary Products and Aquatic Animal Health from English speaking Africa met virtually for the 7^th cycle Seminar on  22 – 23 February 2022. This was the first time when had opportunity to hold this joint meeting for two important domains (veterinary products and aquatic animal health).  The Webinar brought together experts from 26 English speaking countries whose objective was  to reconnect after 2 years,  to deliberate and build on feedback from the previous 6^th cycle seminar , identify key priorities in areas of veterinary product for the region.  The last “face to face” training seminar was held in 9 – 11 July 2019, Addis Ababa and Debre Zeit, Ethiopia for Focal Points of Veterinary Products.

The 7th cycle prioritised key issues focusing on the quality of veterinary  products; AMR and antiparasitic resistance as its leading agenda. The focal points engaged in a rigorous 2 day of in-depth discussions on regulations, OIE procedure  for diagnostic kits and data collection for antimicrobial usage (AMU) at field level. In addition, data sources for AMU that are currently obtained from import records, sales purchases do not reflect the actual use and trends of anti-microbial use. The Focal Points  highlighted the need for OIE to revisit the definition of AMU vs Antimicrobial Consumption terminologies as transcribed by other agencies

Members  also expressed their interest in joining the newly launched OIE project on monitoring and reporting for falsified and substandard veterinary  medicinal products. This was well received, and OIE promised wider consultations will be made to map out their roles and expectations before bringing them on board for the implementation process, noting that this was a collective goal to achieve.

While reflecting on feedback from cycle 6, HealthforAnimals   presented an updated version of the manual ‘How to set up a Pharmacovigilance system for veterinary medicinal products  “in a public private partnership framework. This document will be published for Members s to be able to access and use and to improve or build up there system national or subregional or regional level .

Africa continues to face challenges with antiparasitic resistance and is in dire need for new drugs or vaccines to fight this menace. Many parasitic species are antimicrobial resistant. These drugs are constantly made available as veterinary medicinal products, a practice that is rampant in most member countries.

For aquatic species, most antiparasitic resistance should be addressed considering the monograph on trypanosomes that was done more than 10 years ago. Africa still faces a huge challenge with antiparasitic resistance and in need new drugs and vaccine for both terrestrial and aquatic species . There is a need to take into consideration the aquatic animals on prudent and responsible use of antiparastics in the OIE future work.