Veterinary Officer Dr. Nneka Hull James is leaving at the end of the month to take
up a two-year appointment with the Suriname-based Caribbean Agricultural Health
and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA).
Dr. Hull James will be assuming the position of Animal Health Specialist at
CAHFSA which is a CARICOM institution focused on supporting, efficiently
coordinating and harmonizing good agricultural practices and providing supporting
mechanisms in the areas of animal health, plant health and food safety across the
region.
This role will entail the coordination, facilitation, monitoring and evaluation of
national programmes across CARICOM to successfully address the harmonization.
“Essentially, my role is to work along with the Chief Veterinary Officers across
CARICOM member states to see how best we can coordinate their work in our
efforts to harmonise the protocols across the region. This comes in hand especially
in cases where there may be an outbreak of a particular animal disease. We all
need to have similar methods to both prevent the disease from spreading internally
and also to prevent it from spreading to other countries,” she explained.
She gave as an example the case where African swine fever broke out among
animals in a particular country and the efforts to keep the disease localized. “How
do we set up a safe barrier; how do we deal with the movement of animals from
country to country; and how do we prevent the disease from spreading to other
countries are issues that we have to plan for,” she stated.
Another area where Dr Hull James said her role would become critical is in those
cases where some countries may need to have certain specimens tested but do not
have the laboratories to have these done. Through her office, such arrangements
can be easily worked out.
She is being seconded in the regional post from her substantive position in the
ministry of agriculture for the two-year period.
