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Addis Ababa, 12 February 2013 – The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) together with the African Union (AU) held a launch meeting for the project “Vaccine Standards and Pilot Approach to Peste des Petits Ruminants Control in Africa” at the AU Headquarters in Addis-Ababa (Ethiopia) from 11 to 12 February 2013.
The project “Vaccine Standards and Pilot Approach to PPR Control in Africa” aims to establish a Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) Regional Vaccine Bank and develop a pilot strategy to control the disease in selected countries in Western Africa. It also intends to strengthen the capacities of the Pan African Veterinary Vaccine Centre of the African Union (AU-PANVAC) to improve the quality control of PPR vaccines produced and used in Africa.
The meeting was a determining step forward in the effective deployment of the three components of the project and addressed the following:
In October 2012, the OIE and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation came together to support the control of PPR, a viral infectious disease affecting sheep and goats and which is prevalent in Africa.
The meeting gathered representatives of the OIE, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AU, AU-PANVAC, AU-IBAR, FAO, a selection of targeted countries in Western and Central Africa, representatives of African PPR vaccine producing laboratories, representatives from OIE PPR Reference Laboratories and several other partners including regional organisations, donor agencies and technical partners.