“China and Pakistan enjoy great cooperation potential in animal husbandry and agricultural and sideline products. The two sides should continue to strengthen in-depth cooperation in the livestock industry and open a new chapter for China-Pakistan agricultural exchanges. This was stated by Ghulam Qadir, Pakistan’s Trade and Investment Counsellor in China,  while addressing a seminar on Pakistani dairy buffaloes’ major diseases control, Gwadar Pro reported it on Saturday. The counsellor also stated that Pakistan has the capability of processing dairy products for export to Middle Eastern countries and expressed hope that more Chinese dairy companies would join the dairy industry chain. He stated that "the two sides should continue to strengthen major animal disease prevention and control, establish foot-and-mouth disease-free zones, and promote the export of Pakistani buffalo genetic material, livestock, and poultry products to China and other international markets."

This week, the China-Pakistan Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation & Extension Center, China Agricultural University, and Royal Cell Biotechnology (Guangxi) Co., Ltd hosted a Cooperation Seminar on the prevention and control of major dairy buffalo diseases in Pakistan.In her welcoming speech, Teng Cuijin, Chairman of Royal Cell welcomed the visit of the Pakistani Embassy and Chinese industry experts, and hoped that through the exchange of this seminar, scientific research institutes and industry leading enterprises would jointly promote the prevention and control of major animal diseases of buffaloes in Pakistan, and meet the quarantine inspection technical standards of the Chinese Customs. On the occasion, Zhao Deming, Director of the National Animal Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Laboratory, China Agricultural University, underlined the prevention and control of animal diseases as a key issue to solve the bottlenecks in the trade between China and Pakistan. He pointed out that the sensitive and specific diagnostic techniques introduced by Prof.

Yang Lifeng from the university will help build disease-free farms and monitor BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in Pakistan. He Cheng, coordinator of the China-Pakistan Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation & Extension Center, presented the cooperation content, technical framework, and preliminary cooperation basis of major cattle and sheep epidemic prevention and control projects in Pakistan. He also discussed the construction plan and schedule of the Pakistan buffalo embryo testing laboratory and major epidemic disease testing laboratory in 2023 with the project leaders of Guangxi Buffalo Research Institute and Royal Cell. Xie Wenqiang, Technical Director of Inner Mongolia Bigvet Biotec Co., Ltd., introduced the requirements and testing standards of WOAH for the construction of immune-free areas, and how foot-and-mouth disease marker vaccine was applied to the construction of immune-free areas in Pakistan.  About 20 delegates from Inner Mongolia, Shijiazhuang, and Guangxi attended the seminar.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP