Two ceremonies in one. On 15 March 2022, the Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries (MINEPIA), Dr Taïga, officially handed over the renovated buildings of the National Veterinary Laboratory (LANAVET), Mvog-Betsi annex in Yaoundé, to the US Department of Defense Agency (DTRA). This ceremony was coupled with the presentation of laboratory equipment donations to the same structure by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Renovated as part of the cooperation between Cameroon and the American government at a cost of just over two billion CFA francs, then re-equipped by the above-mentioned partners, LANAVET is, according to MINEPIA, an essential tool for protecting the national livestock population against animal diseases. It also plays a pioneering role in veterinary public health and the fight against emerging and re-emerging zoonoses, with the support of USAID, which is helping the government to set up a programme to combat these zoonoses as part of the “One Health” strategy. Thanks to this support, the laboratory’s technical facilities, biosafety and biosecurity have been strengthened more than ever and, according to Dr Taïga, are now at international level, enabling LANAVET to monitor all animal and zoonotic diseases, including major zoonoses.

Surveillance and control of animal diseases at source are essential at both global and national levels. If Cameroon is to emerge by 2035, it must ensure its food sovereignty and maximise its access to the external market. It should be remembered that these major facilities are part of the activities of the Fao component of the Global Health Security Agenda programme, financed from 2016 to 2022 by the United States Agency for International Development, and of the World Bank’s emergency financing facility under the pandemic emergency mechanism financing window for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The US government and all its partners have regularly provided Cameroon with support. These include, but are not limited to, the donation of computer equipment by USAID in July 2012 and the donation of more than 20 tonnes of laboratory equipment on 13 July 2016 to combat avian influenza. In addition to MINEPIA, the ceremony was also attended by the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.