Brussels, 02/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 2 December, the European Union committed over €160 million to support eradication and monitoring programmes that aim to eliminate animal diseases and zoonoses and further strengthen the protection of human and animal health.
142 programmes have been selected for EU funding: bovine tuberculosis (about €56 million); transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (about €42 million); rabies (€27.5 million); salmonellosis (about €17.5 million); bovine brucellosis (about €10 million); classical swine fever (€3 million); avian influenza (€2.5 million); bluetongue (€1.5 million); African swine fever and swine vesicular disease in Italy (about €850.000).
EU co-financing has resulted in a continuous decrease in the number of cases of diseases, such as salmonellosis (the second most frequently reported zoonotic disease in humans) and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (a disease that affects the brain and nervous system of animals and humans). In 2014, the EU will increase the financial support to tackle rabies (a fatal disease transmitted by animals to humans) and will continue to fund vaccination against rabies in the neighbouring countries of Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation. The EU will also, for the first time, also fund vaccination against classical swine fever in Belarus. (LC/transl.fl)