Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı attended the opening ceremony of the Marmara Veterinary Road Control and Inspection Station in Beykoz. In addition to Minister İbrahim Yumaklı, Istanbul Governor Davut Gül, Istanbul Provincial Director of Agriculture and Forestry Suat Parıldar, Beykoz Deputy Mayor Özlem Vural Gürzel and many Ministry of Agriculture personnel attended the program. Minister İbrahim Yumaklı made a speech at the ceremony.
'FIGHT AGAINST ANIMAL DISEASES IS NOT A JOB THAT CAN BE DONE ONLY AFTER THE DISEASE OCCURS'
Minister İbrahim Yumaklı said, "We are together for the opening of the Veterinary Road Control Point. I wish it auspiciousness for our country's animal husbandry and veterinary health services. Whatever the reason, we are in a period when the need for food increases due to both the agricultural lands in the countries being under pressure for different reasons and the reasons caused by climate change. According to the upcoming predictions, similar issues will continue in the next 20-25 years. Therefore, from today onwards, our aim is a more efficient, higher quality, more sustainable agricultural production. With this understanding. We announced the Livestock Road Map regarding animal husbandry in February 2024 and we started to fully operationalize all of the topics there. Between December 2023 and June 2026, there was an increase of approximately 7.4 percent in the number of cattle and 16 percent in the number of sheep. Of course, our main goal is a healthy animal, a strong business and an efficient, sustainable agriculture. Production. One of the most important conditions for this target is the fight against animal diseases. In 2025, we experienced one of the most severe foot and mouth diseases of the last 30-40 years. However, we have suppressed it in a short period of 4 months. Fighting animal diseases is not a job that can only be done after the disease occurs. You need to make preparations beforehand and organize or create your entire infrastructure accordingly. "Our goal is to minimize animal diseases," he said.
"WE CONTINUE TO CARRY OUR VETERINARY CONTROL LABORATORIES TO ADVANCED BIOSAFETY STANDARDS"
Minister Yumaklı said, "While increasing our domestic vaccine production ability and capacity, we continue to carry our veterinary control laboratories and similar institutions to advanced biosafety standards. We have also completed our work on combining sheep goat pox and sheep goat plague vaccines. There is a disease defined as 'blue tongue' in the world; we have come a long way in the fight against it. We have achieved important concrete results in the field in our animal and herd health support practice. We have achieved important concrete results in the field where sheep and goat plague occurs. "We achieved a 68 percent reduction in blue tongue disease, a 70 percent reduction in sheep and goat pox, and a 40 percent reduction in sheep and goat pox. Food supply security is an issue that we must be vigilant in every aspect. Of course, when we get these results, we are pleased to see that the successes contribute to this," he said.
'THE PURPOSE OF INSPECTIONS IS TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF DISEASES AND TO PREVENT UNFAIR COMPETITION IN OUR SECTOR.'
Minister Yumaklı said, "The rules to be followed in the transportation of animals from one place to another are at least as important as the health rules within the enterprise. Therefore, we are working to eliminate the risk of uncontrolled animal movements and the spread of diseases. Especially our veterinary road control and inspection stations are one of the most important applications of this approach in the field. To date, we have opened veterinary road control and inspection stations in Erzurum, Elazığ, Kayseri, Çankırı and Ankara. Today, we have put the sixth one into service along with our station in Istanbul. Approximately 48 thousand 853 vehicles and 7.5 million live animals have been checked so far in the 5 stations carrying out their activities. During the control, we detected non-compliance in 2 thousand 204 vehicles and 22 thousand 817 animals. We applied the necessary administrative penalties regarding them, and when those who did not want to visit these checkpoints, so to speak, and used different routes were caught and detected, a sanction of around 36 million lira was imposed. "The purpose of these inspections is not to catch the mistake and impose fines. The purpose of these inspections is to protect our breeders who produce and transport their animals in accordance with the rules, to prevent the spread of diseases and to prevent unfair competition in our sector." he said.
'THIS WAY WE WILL FINISH THE UNCONTROLLED ANIMAL MOVEMENTS FROM ANATOLIA TO THRACE'
