ABOUT PROJECT

In June 2014, after the fulfilment of different requests from the European Union (EU), the candidate status was given to Albania. Taking into consideration the progress made from Albania, the members of the European Council endorsed the General Affairs Council’s decision to open accession negotiation in June 2019. In July 2020 the draft negotiation framework was presented to the EU Member States. Although there have been some stops in the process due to some discontent from different Member States, the first negotiation meeting is expected to be held soon in 2022. Please refer to the official page of European Commission (EC, 2022a). Even if Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has not yet awarded with the status of candidate country for the European Union, it is considered as a potential candidate country. The EU Commission has given to the country 14 priorities to fulfil in view of the opening of the negotiations. Please refer to the official page of the European Commission (EC, 2022b). But to fully understand BiH country status they have to be considered the enduring consequences of the war (April 1992 – November 1995). These include a substantial decrease in the human population, massive outward migration and widespread social problems related to refugees. BiH is also a country in transition from a communist regime and suffers substantial weaknesses in public administration, taxation and its general economy. The Dayton peace agreement did not provide a legal framework for the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of Health at the state level and instead delegated the responsibilities for most of governmental functions, including agriculture, to its three Entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), Republic of Srpska (RS) and the independent district of Brcko (BD). This, coupled with a distinct lack of coordination between its three parties, has presented a major handicap to the country’s development during the post war period. For this reasons, strategic goal of the country is work towards harmonization with the EU economic space regulations, where a significant contribution is expected from veterinary public health and food safety.

Thus, even considering the little differences to the road to EU between Albania and BiH, both countries must transpose the European Regulations concerning animal breeding, animal welfare and Public Health, taking into account the main aspects: (i) the transmission of zoonosis and (ii) foodborne diseases, reaching the health and hygiene standards provided by the EU acquis in order to make full accession to the EU.

To achieve these goals, the pivotal prerequisite for the candidate countries consists of keeping in mind the three pillars of sustainability: social (environmental health and safety), economic (providing resources and safety products to consumers) and environmental (green initiatives and operational efficiencies) (EC, 2022d). This type of approach will need to be considered in all phases of agri-food chain: processing, transformation, transport, and storage of food of animal origin in a perspective of farm to fork, One Health and environmental sustainability (EC, 2022c).

The situation reported by the EU regarding the access of candidate and potential candidate countries presents the gaps considering the actual situation for acquis. In particular, for Albania and BiH the gaps related to environmental health, veterinary public health and food safety are relative to the following acquis chapters:

  1. Agriculture / Rural Development – Significant efforts needed;
  2. Food safety / Veterinary and phytosanitary policy – Significant efforts needed;
  3. Environment – Totally incompatible with the acquis;
  4. Consumers / Health protection – Further efforts needed.

Thus, there is a need for support from existing Member Countries to train new professionals in the field of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production that can support a transition to Union European standards, which also aims to improve:

  1. Structures for breeding, control system in agri-food chain and respect for animal welfare;
  2. The basic activities of slaughtering, processing, transformation, transport and sale of food of animal origin;
  3. The facilities for the training of undergraduate students in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production;
  4. The training both theoretical, but, above all, practical and the inadequate structures where carrying out practical activities;
  5. The post-graduate training of actors involved in the above mentioned fields;
  6. The scientific dissemination on veterinary Public Health and food safety issues, and more in general on public health following the EU standards.

For these reasons, the main support and training activities of this project will cover different aspects. Below are reported briefly the topics that will be addressed with their goals. 

Improving knowledge on Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety aspects with an approach “Farm to Fork” as an important part of the European Green Deal.

In this topic, breeding systems will be analysed in relation to the welfare of the animal in the various stages up to slaughtering. Again, all aspects of food safety of food of animal origin within the agri-food chain will be examined from the perspective of sustainability of the production flows and protection of Public and One Health.

In general, the protection of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety and then of the public health, is of fundamental importance. Therefore, the countries of the Western Balkans such as Albania and BiH, are required to strengthen knowledge and skills in the field of environmental health, animal welfare, infectious diseases (zoonosis), toxicology, food safety both for lecturers and graduates in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production. It will be essential for full integration into the European regulatory and application system.

Development and application of an integrated approach between environmental (Eco Health), animal production, veterinary medicine, food safety and human health in a perspective of One Health.

Global trends, such as climate change, population growth, urbanisation, deforestation, increased demand for food, and the strong increase in international trade and travel pose grand challenges to society as a whole, including serious risks to human, animal, and ecosystem health. Adequately meeting these global challenges should involve the development and implementation of durable interventions that emanate from an integrated and balanced perspective in which environmental, wildlife, veterinary and human elements and considerations are integrated. In other words, optimal global health should be obtained by using a holistic approach. This is strongly endorsed by the Sustainable Development Goals which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth. An integrative approach involves interdisciplinary research and education by collaborations between several scientific disciplines and societal domains, to monitor, study, evaluate, model and control Public Health threats. This approach is defined as the integrative effort of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals, and the environment, taking into account environmental, social, ecological and economical aspects. The One Health concept recognizes that health of people is connected to animals and the environment and vice versa. From a more classical point of view, the main focus of One Health concerns the health issues related to the human-animal-environment interface. Environmental health addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person. It is targeted towards preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments to contribute positively to Public Health. Other aspects of relevant importance that countries face, are the relatively strong effect of climate change and environmental pollution on health. Air, soil, and water pollution resulting from different causes (toxic waste disposal, industry, heating, vehicle emissions, open combustion of solid waste, the use of toxic substances in agriculture and drugs in animals) can affect health of people both directly and indirectly through the consumption of food of animal origin. Moreover, zoonosis such as brucellosis, tularaemia, anthrax, yersiniosis, listeriosis and echinococcosis among farmers are persistently prevalent in all the Balkan countries. Local expertise in these domains is scarce, and, moreover, the epidemiological data regarding these issues are often contradictory. 

Topic 1 e 2 Goals – For this purpose an innovative, interdisciplinary and integrative prospective through the realization of a post-graduate school (PGS) and a Master’s degree programme (Ms) is proposed to train the teachers with a “teach to teacher” approach and recent graduates in the field of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production. These teachers will in turn teach other teachers and new students of the degree courses in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science. Moreover, the new graduate students will bring their competence in companies involved in the agri-food chain (agricultural, livestock, feed, processing and sale of food of animal origin). This new didactical approach will increase the knowledge and skills level in the field of the veterinary public health and food safety with an important impact on the public health of the partner third countries involved in the project. Finally, the overall goal of the project is the improvement of knowledge and practices in veterinary Public Health and Food Safety (taking into account environmental sustainability, animal production, veterinary medicine, food control) in Western Balkan countries. Based on a holistic perspective the education in Public Health will be developed creating a PGS and Ms in veterinary public health and food safety for recent graduate students in the field of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, and teachers. As previously mentioned, with the teachers will be used a Teach the Teacher approach thanks to the cooperation of colleagues coming from EU universities.