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

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.

As doenças animais podem ser simultaneamente precursoras de instabilidade social e resultado da instabilidade social. Para que surtos de doenças sejam prevenidos ou mesmo rapidamente contingenciados, um serviço veterinário eficiente e bem estruturado é fundamental. O acompanhamento da eficiência de um Serviço Veterinário Oficial por auditorias oficiais é condição sine-qua-non para o avanço de forma eficiente para controle e erradicação de doenças. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho objetiva estudar os avanços e os desafios do Serviço Veterinário Oficial do Distrito Federal (DF), a partir do estudo das pontuações obtidas pela avaliação Quali-SV/OIE-PVS, a qual foi utilizada para avaliar oficialmente a qualidade e a melhoria do Serviço Veterinário Oficial (SVO) do DF. A avaliação oficial foi conduzida pela Coordenação de Avaliação e Melhoria dos Serviços Veterinários, Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (MAPA), considerando os recursos humanos, infra-estrutura e financeiros. Foram auditados principalmente cinco níveis de pontuação possíveis, sendo eles para autoridade, capacidade técnica e operacional, interação com as partes interessadas e acesso aos mercados. Estes componentes são descritos e avaliados como competências críticas na avaliação SVO. Foram listados os pontos fortes e fracos observados durante a auditoria, e os níveis de progresso do SVO foram classificados e avaliados. Apesar da predominância de pontos fortes na auditoria do SVO, os pontos fracos detectados requerem medidas corretivas urgentes, especialmente no que diz respeito à autonomia do SVO.

Data on network of live cattle exports from Brazil.

This report describes the network of live cattle exports from Brazil using Microsoft Office Excel® files, Terraview®, Maporama®, Pajek® and Google Maps® softwares. The database contains estimates obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) and underwent descriptive, spatial and flow network. The network of live cattle exports from Brazil was determined using data from 27,517 Animal Transit Certificates (ATC) and 579 Veterinary Certificate for International Trade. International departure points, municipalities and states of origin, destination countries, purpose of export and compliance with sanitary requirements for exports, cattle movement and the main transportation corridors were showed through flow network. The states that exported live cattle were Pará, Rio Grande do Sul, Tocantins, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Maranhão. Vila do Conde Port, located in Barcarena municipality in the state of Pará, was the main international departure point of animals, which were intended mostly for immediate slaughter in the importing country. The internal cattle transportation corridors of the main counties and farms that provide animals for exports in 2009 were mapped.

Microbiological detection of bacteria in animal products seized in baggage of international air passengers to Brazil.

Airline travel favours the transmission of diseases, given the short time it takes to travel long distances. In this study, animal products without health certificates seized in international air passengers' baggage at Guarulhos (GRU) and Galeão (GIG) airports in Brazil underwent a microbiological evaluation. Analyses (1610) were carried out on 322 seizures to test for the presence of total and thermotolerant coliforms, as well as Staphylococcus aureus counts and the presence of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella. Most seizures analysed showed coliform contamination and coliforms were present above acceptable limits in 83.4% (40/48) of the products that had some type of contamination. The second most prevalent microorganism found was L. monocytogenes in 22.9% (11/48) and S. aureus was cultivated in 14.58% (7/48) of seizures. Among the items seized in the present work, Salmonella was found in one seizure of pig sausage. Contamination of animal products with microbiological pathogens of importance to public health and indicators of the bad quality of the food were shown in the present study.