Challenges to and advancements of the official veterinary service of the Federal District, Brazil

Abstract

Animal diseases can be both a precursor to social instability and a result of social instability. For disease outbreaks to be prevented or even quickly controlled, an efficient and well-structured veterinary service is fundamental. The monitoring of the efficiency of an official veterinary service (OVS) by official audits is a sine qua non condition for the progress of an efficient way to control and eradicate diseases. In this sense, the present work aims to study the advances and challenges of the OVS of the Federal District (DF), Brazil, from a study of the scores obtained by the evaluation of the Programme of Quality Evaluation and Improvement of Official Veterinary Services which is based on the World Organisation for Animal Health -Performance of Veterinary Services Pathway (Quali-SV/OIE-PVS), which was used to officially assess the quality and improvement of the OVS of the DF. In Brazil, the official evaluation was conducted by the Coordination of Evaluation and Improvement of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, considering manpower, infrastructure and financial resources. Five possible scoring levels were audited: authority, technical and operational capacity, interaction with stakeholders and access to markets. These components were described and assessed as critical competencies in the OVS assessment. Strengths and weaknesses observed during the audit were listed, and levels of OVS progress were rated and assessed. Despite the predominance of strengths in the OVS audit, the weaknesses detected require urgent corrective action, especially with regard to the autonomy of the OVS.

Survey on sanitary practices and knowledge about infectious diseases among equine owners in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

“…The main equestrian sport in this region is vaquejada. In some events there is an agglomeration of animals of different origins and under inadequate health conditions due to lack of sanitary control, which constitute risk factors for the transmission of several infectious diseases, as suggested by Lage et al (2007) and Taques et al (2021) . Recently, Melo and Ferreira (2022a) described five simultaneous incidences of bacterial pneumonia associated with E. coli in athletic horses.…”