This collaboration was offered to the Dominican agriculture minister, Luis Ramon Rodriguez, after the delegates presented at the Annual Meeting of the OIE, held in the country, which declared the country to be free of classical swine fever and other diseases that affect livestock.

After thanking the support, the minister said that the Dominican Republic has fulfilled the work schedule set by the OIE to be declared free of classical swine fever in pigs; newcastle and avian influenza in birds, and other diseases in cattle.

The official highlighted the efforts of President Danilo Medina to solve the problems related to sanitary barriers.

Mr Rodriguez said that the Dominican Republic "is working with great efforts to achieve the objectives of the Fifth OIE Strategic Plan 2015, which calls us to improve animal health, public health, animal welfare and strengthen the role of the animals in the world."

He said his country is free of major animal diseases like FMD, rinderpest, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, African horse sickness and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.

Regarding Classical Swine Fever (CSF) he announced that, after an extensive vaccination programme which began in 1997, 36 months have now gone by without a single case reported.

"This is irrefutable proof that we are on the right path, and to invest in monitoring and animal disease prevention pays off. Time has a compensation which translates into safety and security for government, producers and consumers," he said.