Trinidad and To­ba­go's readi­ness to re­spond to an an­i­mal dis­ease out­break will be test­ed next month dur­ing a sim­u­la­tion ex­er­cise or­gan­ised by the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries and the Food and Agri­cul­ture Or­ga­ni­za­tion of the Unit­ed Na­tions (FAO).

The ex­er­cise forms part of a wider col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween the Min­istry and the FAO to strength­en the coun­try's abil­i­ty to pre­vent, de­tect and re­spond to live­stock dis­eases, which can pose sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic health risks and threat­en food pro­duc­tion.

Ahead of the ex­er­cise, the Min­istry has re­ceived spe­cialised vet­eri­nary equip­ment from the FAO un­der a tech­ni­cal co­op­er­a­tion project ti­tled An­i­mal Dis­ease Out­break Re­sponse in Trinidad and To­ba­go.