Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 8 November 2023, the 45th meeting of the Intergovernmental Council for Cooperation in the Field of Veterinary Medicine was held in Tashkent, the press service of the CIS Executive Committee reports.

The meeting was attended by members of the council and authorized representatives of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as representatives of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the CIS Executive Committee.

At the opening of the meeting, Deputy Secretary General of the CIS Ilkhom Nematov delivered a welcoming speech. He noted that the invariably priority area of interaction between the Commonwealth states is issues of ensuring food security, and livestock farming is the most important area of food production.

Also, the Deputy Secretary General of the CIS noted that in the modern world, the health of the population and the food security of the state directly depend on the favorable epizootic situation on its territory. Nematov I.T. emphasized the significant role played by the council in ensuring food security and promoting interstate trade in agricultural products.

Bakhrom Norkobilov, Chairman of the Committee for Veterinary Medicine and Livestock Development under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan, was unanimously elected as thr Chairman of the Intergovernmental Council for Cooperation in the Field of Veterinary Medicine.

The agenda of the council meeting included a wide range of issues related to ensuring epizootic welfare in the CIS member states and timely notification of the occurrence of infectious animal diseases.

The heads of delegations presented information on the epizootic situation in the CIS member states in 2018–2023.

Council members discussed information on the implementation in 2022–2023 of the Set of joint measures of the CIS member states for the prevention and control of foot-and-mouth disease for the period until 2025, the Set of joint actions for the prevention and control of rabies for the period until 2025 and the Set of joint actions for prevention and the fight against avian influenza and Newcastle disease for the period until 2025, prepared by the basic organization of the CIS member states for advanced training and retraining of personnel in the field of diagnosis and control of animal diseases by the federal state budgetary institution “Federal Center for Animal Health Protection” (Russian Federation).

Based on the results of the discussions on the agenda of the meeting, the council members made appropriate decisions, the implementation of which will make a significant contribution to the overall efforts to deepen interstate cooperation in the CIS.

The next meeting of the Intergovernmental Council for Cooperation in the Field of Veterinary Medicine is scheduled to be held in the second half of 2024 in Turkmenistan in person.