U.S. Government Provides Veterinary Equipment to Combat Avian Influenza

Today, the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Kyiv held a ribbon cutting ceremony to dedicate the diagnostic and biosafety equipment and reagents provided by the United States of America as part of the U.S. Government’s response to Ukraine’s request for assistance on combating Avian Influenza. The United States Ambassador to Ukraine Taylor presided over the ceremony. This equipment is part of a larger effort of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to combat bioterrorism and prevent the proliferation of biological weapons related pathogens, technologies and expertise. DoD is also in the process of procuring and installing similar equipment at the Ministry of Health’s Central Sanitary Epidemiological Station (CSES) in Kyiv and the Academy of Agrarian Sciences’s Institute of Experimental Clinical Veterinary Medicine in Kharkiv. This equipment, coupled with DoD-provided epidemiological and diagnostic training, will enhance Ukraine’s ability to detect, diagnose and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, such as Avian Influenza, rapidly, safely and accurately.

This is part of DoD’s Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Biological Threat Reduction (BTR) Program with the Government of Ukraine under the Biological Threat Reduction Implementing Agreement of August 2005. Through this program, DoD works jointly with the Government of Ukraine to strengthen pathogen detection and response networks; enhance Ukraine’s ability to detect, diagnose and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, whether they be natural outbreaks that could be exploited by bioterrorists or outbreaks caused by bioterrorists; consolidate Ukraine’s highly infectious pathogens into safe, secure centralized repositories; provide biosecurity and biosafety upgrades at the safe, secure centralized repositories; and ensure the safe and secure storage and handling of highly infectious pathogens used for peaceful research to prevent accidental release, theft, and exposure.

As part of DoD and the Government of Ukraine’s efforts to enhance Ukraine’s threat agent detection and response system, DoD is establishing two epidemiological monitoring stations, one at the Central Sanitary Epidemiological Station and the other at the L’viv Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene to enhance regional disease surveillance capabilities. The Ministry of Health designated the Odesa Anti-Plague Research Institute as the site for the interim central reference laboratory and pathogen repository, and DoD is working with the institute to upgrade the institute to accommodate this new functionality.

The U.S. Government considers Ukraine a strategic partner in its efforts to combat bioterrorism and prevent pathogens from falling into the hands of terrorists or states desiring biological weapons. The advent of Avian Influenza is underscoring as an increasing concern the need to work together to seek ways to defeat such global health threats. It is in all of our interests to do so and to do so immediately.