With the support of the European Commission, a panel on “Animal Disease Eradication: Lessons learnt and opportunities of brucellosis eradication” was organised highlighting the importance of animal disease eradication with a particular focus on brucellosis. The event took place in Nicosia at Hidden Garden on Friday, 28 February 2020. The opening speeches were made by Mr. Arttu Makipaa and Ms. Burcu Barın. 
The event hosted Dr. Mehmet Demirpençe, Dr. Ankica Labrovic, Dr. Yolanda Vaz, and Dr. Mehmet İsfendiyaroğlu as expert speakers. During the event, they provided information on the progress made on the elimination of brucellosis from 2016 until the end of 2019. Over the past 3 years, EU supported activities contributed to overall reduction of prevalence of brucellosis in cattle herds from around 10% to 8% and in sheep and goats herds from 10% to 6%. Reduction of prevalence of brucellosis in animals contributes also reduction of brucellosis cases in humans.
The event also highlighted lessons learnt, local constraints and opportunities for faster elimination of brucellosis. The experts stressed that delayed elimination of animals which have brucellosis and irregular testing to maintain brucellosis free herd status, according to the EU standards, prevent faster elimination of brucellosis, while increasing the cost of its elimination.
This panel on "Animal Disease Eradication: Lessons learnt and opportunities of brucellosis eradication” is the third of a series of activities organised on the eradication of animal diseases. The first activity was the “Animal Disease Eradication: Healthier Animals, Safer Food” conference which took place in June 2019 where the importance of animal health for food safety and reduction of losses for farmers with a particular focus on brucellosis was addressed. The second of the series was the "Animal Disease Eradication: Strengthening the Capacity of Veterinary Services" which took place in November 2019, where the procedures on engagement (by Veterinary Department) of private veterinarians to deliver certain tasks and the veterinary cost-sharing scheme to support the sustainability of animal disease elimination were discussed.