Foot-and-mouth disease nearly eliminated in Andean region

Due to the joint efforts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, the foot-and-mouth disease has been eradicated or nearly eradicated in South America's Andean region, the Andean Community (CAN) said Monday. The regional bloc made the announcement in a statement, citing Tito Diaz with the regional office of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "The individual efforts of one country are not enough, if other countries make no progress, because the risks of reinfection are there. The advantage of subregional programs and the work that the CAN carries out is precisely to coordinate these actions across countries," Diaz said. He said Peru was currently 88 percent free of the disease, and could probably be declared 100 percent disease-free by 2015. Colombia has already consolidated its disease-free country status, with a disease-free zone without vaccination and another with vaccination, achieving 100 percent disease-free status, according to the World Organization for Animal Health. Thanks to its improved national program, Ecuador has made significant progress as the country has not reported any outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the past 12 months, Diaz said. Bolivia has also made progress as its Andean Plateau region has been declared a disease-free zone without vaccination, a key achievement since the area is home to a large number of small-scale producers, said Diaz.