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AC Unit arrives for New Vet Lab

Mar 02, 2014 News

– another contract to be awarded

The state of the art air conditioning unit from Texas, United States, has arrived in Guyana, and will soon be installed at the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory erected at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara.
This was according to Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who said that an additional contract has been awarded for the installation of the equipment. The cost of the AC unit is inclusive in the lab’s US $2.5M overall cost.
The Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory was to have been completed last November, but the Agriculture Minister said that this was because the AC unit had not yet arrived.
The late delivery of the equipment caused months of delays for the completion of the lab. Dr. Ramsammy, during a recent interview with Kaieteur News, said that the AC unit will be installed in a few weeks. He could not say which entity has been contracted to install the equipment.
“The building itself is completed. The floors and so are done,” Dr. Ramsammy said.
Now that the equipment has finally arrived, the completion of the project remains dependent on the installation of the air condition unit.
Once the air conditioning unit is installed, the final touches to the building will commence, and after being fully equipped with the necessary tools and technologies, the Vet Lab will become operational. This is likely to be done before yearend.
Dr. Ramsammy recently expressed pleasure with the construction of the facility. He added that he is confident that the facility will be beneficial to the livestock sector.
The laboratory will have the capability to test, detect and diagnose diseases affecting animals, ultimately improving the livestock sector.
It is being built on the site where the Animal Health Laboratory once stood. That building was demolished and redesigned, since the facility was hardly ever used, and had not been functioning as a full-fledged laboratory.
Dr. Ramsammy explained that the Animal Health Lab was operating as a sample holding facility, and that tests had to be done overseas. However, with the new diagnostic lab, the resources will be made available to allow for testing to be done locally.
When the laboratory is commissioned, it will be equipped to test for brucellosis which affects mainly sheep, goats, pigs, cattle and dogs, bovine (cattle) diseases, leptospirosis, and tuberculosis, among others.
The Minister noted, also, that his Ministry is working to have the laboratory accredited, so that the tests done here can be recognized abroad.
Earlier, Dr. Ramsammy had said that the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab is critical as Guyana moves towards consolidating its food security and lowering its high importation cost.
It was further noted that soon, there will be a database on the Veterinary Practitioners’ Act and a Veterinary Council will be set up to register all veterinarians and veterinary technicians across the country.
He also made mention of the Animals (Movement and Disease Prevention) Act, which is intended to address the wellbeing of animals.
The Agriculture Minister said that wanting to improve the quality of meat produced locally, especially for export, would call for healthy animals, thus, a credible animal health lab is necessary.
Once fully completed and functional, the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab will be handed over but will remain under the supervision of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA), which is headed by Dr. Dindyal Permaul.

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