The Upper Mekong Working Group (UMWG) provides a forum for member countries and partners to build relationships and share information and expertise, in order to strengthen FMD transborder prevention and control efforts in the region. The focus of the UMWG is the Upper Mekong Zone, which consists of the northern areas of Lao People’s Democratic Republic (hereafter Laos), Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Yunnan Province of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter China). Initiatives under the UMWG require detailed inputs at the UMZ provincial level to drive local, cross-border and regional disease prevention and control measures under the SEACFMD Campaign.
The 14th meeting of the UMWG was held in Xishuangbanna, China on 23-25 April 2019, and gathered around 50 participants from veterinary authority of central and local level in UMWG members countries. The meeting provided updates on the recent developments in the China and South-East Asia safer trade project, disseminated findings of the OIE risk assessment study of transboundary spread of FMD conducted in January 2017, and identified key areas to strengthen public-private partnership to facilitate safer cross-border animal movements. As such, this meeting also provided an opportunity to best prepare the workshop planned end 2019 for the Private Sector Consultative Committees in the region to present the OIE Handbook on PPP.
The meeting was organised with support of China Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Bureau and Yunnan Animal Science and Veterinary Institute.
