Strengthening veterinary services in veterinary public health in Mali 2019/2020/2025
In many countries (particularly in several developing and transition countries), the quality of veterinary education remains below the standards required to guarantee highly qualified veterinary services. This has highlighted the need to strengthen veterinary education (especially in veterinary public health), with a particular focus on establishing minimum skills and harmonizing key elements of the curriculum to facilitate the international mobility of veterinarians and access to international markets.
Despite the existing regulatory framework and the government's efforts to promote food safety, many meat professionals, veterinarians, and other animal production specialists do not master hazard analysis as an objective and justifiable method for assessing and managing health risks and communicating about these risks. However, food safety issues are important for the protection of animal health, consumer health, and the environment. Three complementary missions have been carried out in Mali from 2019 to the present.
1. Veterinary capacity building & Veterinary Public Health introduction — TOKTEN Mali (2019)
o Strengthen veterinary services in veterinary public health, which consists of:
-Providing high-quality veterinary education to equip veterinarians with the knowledge they need to practice effectively and truly support Veterinary Services
-Improving the safety of food of animal origin by eliminating hazards arising during animal production.
-Developing a food control policy that will involve the industrial sector and consumer organizations in the work of the public administration.
-Reviewing the current situation with the involvement of all parties concerned, which will help to generate the necessary resources and elicit the corresponding commitments to achieve a comprehensive food control policy.
2. Training in HACCP/GHP and slaughterhouse inspection with ENABEL, ANDVM, DNSV — Mali (2020)
o The Mali-Belgium bilateral cooperation program supports direct and indirect stakeholders in the livestock/meat sector in the Koulikoro region in developing the meat value chain.
o The mission had the same objective but focused primarily on slaughter areas in the Koulikoro region.
3. FAO veterinary capacity building in Mali (Jan–Feb 2025)
o The mission aims to strengthen public health veterinary services by improving the knowledge of veterinarians/paraveterinarians in meat hygiene and exploring the upgrading of the Sabalibougou slaughterhouse with the opportunity for Mali to start exporting raw meat.
o Improve the knowledge and expertise of veterinarians/veterinary professionals in the public and private sectors on good hygiene practices (GHP-prerequisites), hazard analysis (HACCP), risk management in meat hygiene, and the inspection system in slaughterhouses.
Today:
Learners from the public and private sectors have mastered national food control systems, food hazards, meat-related diseases, and finally zoonoses transmissible at the slaughterhouse.
Learners from the public and private sectors analyzed the hygiene and health safety situation at the Sabalibougou cold storage slaughterhouse (AFS) with a view to identifying gaps based on good manufacturing practices (GMP).
Learners from the public and private sectors are better equipped to fulfill their professional mandate and transfer knowledge to veterinarians/paraveterinarians in the country's agri-food sector.
Learners from the public and private sectors gained a better understanding of sampling and biosecurity.
Daily monitoring and improvement continue!
My sincere thanks go to all the national authorities and structures, local/African/international partners and all the colleagues who made this mission a success.