A group of AKVMB Official Veterinarians along with representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development took part in a study visit to Ireland from 25 – 30 June to learn more about EU official controls from registration and movement of animals through to slaughtering and meat processing.

The week started with meeting officials at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine who provided an overview of Ireland’s veterinary services and animal identification and movement system.

Throughout the week the group was shown how the official veterinary controls system works in practice. The first site visit was to a dairy farm where the focus was on registration of calves and controls for milk production.  The other site visits focused on animal slaughter and meat processing where participants followed the whole process from animal intake to product dispatch. A visit to a Mart where live animal sales also take place to demonstrate how the movement of animals is recorded and managed to ensure traceability requirements are met.  The study visit concluded with a visit to the offices of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. 

The study visit complemented training being delivered by veterinary expert, David Lynch through the Food Safety Project in Albania to improve the quality of meat inspection by increasing competencies of Official Veterinarians. Participants from the study visit will use their knowledge and experience to train their peers on return to Albania.

A special thanks to the teams of official veterinarians and establishments who facilitated the visits including the farm of Joseph and Eoin Lenehan, Euro Farm Foods, Manor Farm, McCarren Meats, Commins slaughterhouse and Carnaross Mart. 

This action is funded by the European Union and is implemented by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland in partnership with the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and The Marine, the Finnish Food Safety Authority and Creative Business Solutions (CBS), Albania.