July 22-23, 2020, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan: the European Union funded Project “Support to Further Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Turkmenistan – SARD III” conducted a two-day workshop on the development of the First National Strategic Plan for Control of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). The workshop was held via video conferencing format at the capital’s Yyldyz Hotel, where Dr. Carsten Potzsch, the SARD III Project short-term international FMD specialist, Mr. David Pepper, the SARD III Project expert, and Mr. Akmyrat Yazhanov, the SARD III short-term veterinary specialist, presented international best practices and standards in the areas of foot and mouth disease management. The target group of the seminar consisted of veterinary specialists of the State Veterinary Service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection of Turkmenistan.
“The purpose of this seminar is to create clear and practical recommendations for the development of an important document for the country, using international norms and standards recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). At the same time, it should combine Turkmen ancestral livestock traditions with the achievements of modern science, the latest knowledge on the application of international experience in this area”, – said David Pepper, a key expert of the SARD III project in Turkmenistan.
At the end of the training session, the veterinary specialists expressed their appreciation, summarized, and developed the final preliminary version of the National Plan for control of foot and mouth disease.
