CaribVET, A TOOL TO FACILITATE CONTROL OF EMERGING AND EXOTIC ANIMAL DISEASE THREATS

The Caribbean Animal Health Network (CaribVET) is a collaboration among institutions (veterinary services, research or diagnostic laboratories, international organizations) and individuals to improve animal health and the safety of animal products throughout the Caribbean. It aims at promoting collaborations and a regional approach for animal diseases control and emergency preparedness, strengthening national epidemiosurveillance networks, developing and harmonizing regional veterinary diagnostic capacities, and fostering communication and exchange of information among individuals involved in animal production and health in the Caribbean. Control of re-emerging and exotic animal disease threats has been at the forefront of CaribVET activities. The network was initiated in 1995 with the Caribbean Amblyomma Programme, an eradication program for Amblyomma variegatum, a tick imported from Africa and associated with severe diseases of ruminants (heartwater and dermatophilosis), whose spread to the Lesser Antilles threatened the rest of the Caribbean and the American mainland. Projects were set up to help control classical swine fever, an OIE listed disease reintroduced into Hispaniola in 1996, and to improve surveillance in disease-free neighboring islands. CaribVET also contributed to establishing collaborations for surveillance and diagnosis of West Nile virus, an arthropod-borne virus first detected in the Caribbean in 2001 and affecting humans, horses and birds. Other CaribVET activities include training, organization of regional meetings and dissemination of information through the CaribVET website www.caribvet.net.