embassy events 2008

U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Official Visits Poland

8 December 2008 

Ambassador Ashe and Jay K. Mitchell

Jay K. Mitchell, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Policy Director for Europe at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, visited Warsaw and Pulawy, Poland Dec. 1-5, to provide training to 22 veterinarians students of the Polish Veterinary Service, the Ukrainian Veterinary Service, and others at Poland’s Pulawy National Institute for Veterinary Science, announced Agricultrual Counselor Eric Wenberg.  U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe met Director Mitchell in his office for a briefing on USDA veterinary cooperation with Europe and the two discussed Polish history.  Mitchell was a student in Poland and studied three years in Krakow in the 1980’s.  Director Mitchell’s hosts at the Pulawy Institute were Dr. Tadeusz Wijaska and Dr. Jan Zmudzinski.   

The Pulawy Institute is Europe’s most advanced veterinary laboratory and is rapidly becoming a regional resource as a reference laboratory and training center for other EU member states and in Central and Eastern Europe.  The lab will be critical to the development of quick diagnostic action and response in the case of animal-borne pathogens and diseases that are a global economic threat to agriculture and to human health.  The lab is ready to help the region to prepare to fight avian influenza, foot and mouth disease, and with further investment might even be prepared to assist with the globe’s deadliest threats such as Ebola and others.  Poland takes a serious attitude and scientific approach towards animal health issues and the Pulawy Institute is in the region’s front line to cooperate at EU border points with Belarus and Ukraine.  Its training efforts help to reduce potential threats on the EU’s eastern borders by improving the level of readiness on Ukraine’s and other countries’ veterinary services.  The Institute was dedicated Nov. 18 and its founding was supported by both the EU and the United States.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture is a partner with Poland on these issues and Director Mitchell’s visit was supported by USDA’s Emerging Markets Program.  Director Mitchell is a fluent Polish and Russian speaker and offered his training in those languages.   While visiting Poland, Mitchell called on its Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Janusz Związek and Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr. Krzystof Jazdzewski, inviting them to the United States for more talks and training.