In
response to the Cuban request, the FAO's Regional Office for Latin
America and the Caribbean issued a communiqué stating that Cuba's joining
the project will contribute to strengthening the zoosanitary heritage and
human health protection, said FAO's representative Marcio Porto at a
meeting in Santiago de Chile in which the Cuban Veterinary Institute
(IMV) asked for technical assistance to be part of the group of countries
that benefit from the mad cow prevention plan.
Belize,
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the
Dominican Republic are the nations included in the project that seeks to
enhance and guide veterinary services into obtaining the category of
insignificant or controlled risk in a short period of time.
Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as Mad-Cow Disease (MCD),
is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease in cattle, which causes a spongy
degeneration in the brain and spinal cord.
The
disease is one of six animal conditions that can be transmitted from one
country to another and scientists believe that it may be transmitted to human
beings as well.
IMV
experts told ACN that there has not been a reported case of that disease
in Cuba since it was first reported.
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