Poultry Disease Regionalization Workshop

India is one of the biggest producer of meat in the world and yet provides an opportunity of U.S. meat exports.

The demand for high-quality meat and meat products is increasing with the increase in population, and growth in the purchasing power of the middle class. With the increase in expendable income, consumers are increasingly focusing on food safety and quality. This provides a tremendous opportunity for export of U.S. origin meat and meat products.

However, the biggest challenge is to develop partnerships with the local industry.

The poultry market access to India is one such example where the domestic industrys resistance delayed the market access until the WTO intervention.

The market is opened this year and training the Indian government on the adoption of OIE code of regionalization would help to retain this important market.

Knowledge of United States industry-government regulatory cooperation; science-based surveillance programs in support of regionalization for avian influenza freedom would support Indian government efforts to control and contain avian influenza (AI) while ascertaining the safety of U.S. poultry imports.

Moreover, India asked for assistance in understanding the regionalization concepts and APHIS process for recognizing the disease free status for animal diseases in relation to OIE guidelines.