EU commits 161 mln euros to combat animal diseases, zoonoses in 2016

The European Union (EU) has committed close to 161 million euros (about 175 million U.S. dollars) to support eradication, control and surveillance programs that aim to eliminate animal diseases and zoonoses as well as further strengthen the protection of human and animal health, said the European Commission in a press release on Tuesday.

Given the serious impact that animal disease outbreaks can have on human health, but also on economy and trade, the allocation of EU co-financing would continue to assist national authorities in putting in place precautionary measures, disease surveillance and eradication programs, at national and the European level, said the press release.

Overall, 130 programs have been selected for EU funding on the management of the expenditure in the food safety area.

EU co-financing has resulted in a continuous improvement of the animal health and also a decrease in the number of human cases of various zoonotic diseases, such as Salmonellas from 151,292 cases in 2007 to 80,677 cases in 2014, noted the press release.

Moreover, similar success was noted also for Brucellosis and other zoonotic diseases.

The co-funded programs for oral vaccination against Rabies in wild animals have been very successful, with the total number of Rabies cases at the EU level in wild animals decreased significantly, from 814 in 2007 cases to just 216 cases in 2014 with very few human cases reported. Endit