New rules for Livestock in 2011
The IV Constitutional Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, has an ongoing strategic plan to strengthen the livestock sector. Several programs, among which the Animal Health Program is highlighted, are being developed and implemented by the Secretariat of State of Livestock, supported by its two national directorates – National Directorate for Livestock and Veterinary and National Directorate for Quarantine and Biosecurity.
For the implementation of these projects – which will introduce new rules and methods for the livestock sector, such as quality certificates, vaccination, animal raising or feeding – cooperation agreements have been established with international organizations and also with countries, especially those who are closer to Timor-Leste and with which commercial relations have already been established.
In 2011, Timor-Leste wants to integrate the World Organization for Animal Health (also known as OIE) that counts with more than 170 member countries and territories. The main objective of this intergovernmental organization is to coordinate and stimulate, at a world level, the information, the investigation and the elaboration of sanitation norms for animal epidemic control. The OIE keeps an updated list with diseases that the countries are obligated to notify, in case verified incidents occur in their territory. Timor-Leste, in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been doing a veterinary diagnosed report on an annual basis, an obligatory condition to adhere to OIE.
