INTERREG project “SafeGuard”: Cross-border control of animal diseases for the first time

In the German-Dutch border region, animal diseases and zoonoses, i.e. infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animal to person and from person to animal, are now to be systematically fought across borders. In the next four and a half years, the project partners GIQS (Cross-Border Integrated Quality Assurance eV) and 35 organizations from science, business and authorities will develop measures and concepts in the "SafeGuard" project to ensure food safety and quality, including animal health, for one of the most populous and cattle-dense regions To further improve Europe. On the German side, the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony as well as the Netherlands and the European Union are funding the project with a total of 9,35 million euros from the INTERREG program Germany-Netherlands. The EU participates with 50 percent and North Rhine-Westphalia with around 600.000 euros.

As part of “SafeGuard”, preventive, control and monitoring measures as well as crisis management on both sides of the border are to be further improved and the available resources are to be networked even better. The measures include, in particular, the development of internet-based solutions for cross-company and cross-agency data exchange, the analysis of the combinability of state and private-sector controls, the development and testing of new training concepts for farmers and farm veterinarians, and the analysis of transport flows within the program area on the basis of geographical information -Systems, the development of early warning systems for animal diseases (e.g. swine fever, etc.) and zoonoses (e.g. salmonella and antibiotic-resistant pathogens) or the establishment of German-Dutch training programs to qualify veterinarians for cross-border exchange.

In addition to the development of new joint technologies and processes for identifying and averting risks, emergencies will also be tested in the course of the project. Therefore, all responsible authorities and organizations from the Netherlands, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony are involved in cross-border animal disease exercises in order to acquire new knowledge from the project work and to be able to benefit from the experience of colleagues. There has never been such an extensive exercise in the border area. This is to avoid potential reconciliation problems between the two countries.

In addition, early detection systems for "new" diseases are to be developed, which are becoming increasingly important due to climate change and increased global trade. Here, new diagnostic methods are developed and it is ensured that the responsible authorities can be informed directly - even across national borders - about the new disease and preventive measures. This saves valuable time.

The economic dimensions of zoonoses and animal disease outbreaks are enormous: In the European Union alone, diseases caused by pathogens that spread from animals to humans cause costs of over 6 billion euros every year. In North Rhine-Westphalia, swine fever in 2006 caused costs of around 24 million euros in compensation or subsidies and economic losses of around 20-60 million euros. In addition, there were very high losses due to the more than three-month transport ban from NRW to the neighboring Netherlands.

Current information about the project can be found here: www.giqs.org/projects/SafeGuard/index.php

Source: Düsseldorf [ MUNLV ]