The consortium is composed of the lead beneficiary and coordinator Croatian Agency of Agriculture and Food (HAPIH) and four beneficiaries: the Ministry of Agriculture (MA), the Croatian Institute for public Health (CIPH), the Croatian Veterinary Institute (CVI) and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb (FVMUZ). The consortium is managed by HAPIH who will be linked with all partners and the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA).

CROATIAN AGENCY FOR AGRICULTURE AND FOOD (HAPIH)

Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food (HAPIH) is a specialized public institution in the field of agriculture, food and rural development, which carries out a wide range of its activities in the areas above through eight organizational units – centres (Centre for Seed and Seedings, Centre for Food Safety, Centre for animal husbandry, the Centre for soil, the Centre for quality control of livestock products, the Centre for viticulture, winemaking and oil production, the Centre for fruit and vegetable growing, and the Centre for plant protection).

In CROOH project, the Centre for Food Safety participates as the national contact point of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) which ensures the exchange of information between EFSA and national stakeholders by coordinating with the national network of institutions in the field of food and feed safety in the Republic of Croatia.

HAPIH was founded by the Republic of Croatia, and the rights and duties of the founder are performed by the Ministry of Agriculture (MA). The activity, structure, working method, operations, management relations and financing method of HAPIH are regulated by the Act of the Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food (Official Gazette 111/18).

HAPIH provides professional and scientific support to the Ministry of Agriculture primarily in the drafting of legislation, expert opinions and documents. HAPIH actively participates in the implementation of part of the official controls and other activities by regulations on food, animal feed, animal health and welfare, plant health and means for plant protection.

Experts and scientists of HAPIH have intensive cooperation with institutes, the academic community, laboratories and other legal entities in the Republic of Croatia in the field of agriculture and food safety, animal feed, as well as with international institutions in the related field of work, especially member states of the European Union. HAPIH carries out development and research activities, and among its many tasks is finding innovative solutions in the field of agriculture and food safety, and an active role in the dissemination of knowledge, all in the function of improving domestic agricultural production, to contribute to the social and economic development of the Republic of Croatia.

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MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES (MA)

Ministry of Agriculture is a state administrative body responsible for legislation and administrative tasks in the area of veterinary issues, agriculture and agricultural policies, fishery, forestry, rural development and food industry.

In animal health, MA is responsible for establishing surveillance, eradication and control of animal diseases including zoonosis in all production, processing and distribution phases. MA is responsible also for animal feed, animal welfare and other tasks related to veterinary public health, organisation of veterinary services, reporting and notification to the European Commission and competent authorities of other states.

Experts and scientists from MA involved in CROOH project work in the Veterinary and Food Safety Directorate, one of the administrative units of MA, and have long-term experience in animal health, in particular in developing and analysing surveillance and control programmes for animal diseases.

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CROATIAN VETERINARY INSTITUTE (CVI)

Croatian Veterinary Institute (CVI) is a leading research institution in the Republic of Croatia dedicated to advancing animal health and welfare, as well as promoting public health and safety. It was founded in 1933 and is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture. It consists of headquarters in Zagreb, branches of the Veterinary Institute Vinkovci, Križevci, Rijeka, Split, and the Poultry Centre in Zagreb. In this capacity, the state performs tasks of national interest. It is a diagnosis of infectious diseases and invasive animal diseases, analysis of food and animal feed, control of veterinary medicinal products, and scientific research activity. The laboratories of the Institute are accredited according to the new audit norms HRN EN ISO /IEC 17025:2017. It is constantly increasing the number of accredited methods so that currently the Institute has 251 accredited methods in fixed and flexible areas. Its main activity is focused on research, development, and implementation of new diagnostic and preventive methods for animal diseases. This includes developing new vaccines and treatments for livestock, poultry, and companion animals and monitoring and controlling zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

The CVI has made significant achievements in the field of veterinary science, such as developing new diagnostic methods for bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis, as well as playing a key role in controlling the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Croatia. The institute also works closely with the Croatian government and international organizations to develop and implement policies related to animal health and welfare. Departments involved in the CROOH project implementation are Department for Pathological Morphology, Department for Virology, Department for Bacteriology and Parasitology, and Poultry Centre Zagreb.

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CROATIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH (CIPH)

The Croatian Institute of Public Health (CIPH) is a public health institute on a national level with over 120 years of tradition in public health. Its main missions are to maintain and promote the health of Croatia’s population and promote Public Health Actions on a national level. In addition, CIPH must coordinate public health activities in a network of County Institutes of Public Health in all countries. The Division for Environmental Health of the Croatian Institute of Public Health is the central place in the network of public health institutions, and institutes of public health, which implement measures to protect human health related to environmental factors with potentially harmful effects. The main tasks of the network are monitoring, evaluation, prevention, and correction of environmental factors with harmful effects, supporting activities that improve the quality of the environment, using healthy lifestyles, and encouraging the use of health technologies. The measures relate to all types of environmental factors (biological, chemical, physical, etc.), and are carried out in all environmental media that come into contact with humans – water, foodstuffs, air, soil, etc.

The Epidemiology Service for communicable diseases is the Reference Centre for Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia. The task and scope of work of epidemiology is surveillance, monitoring, studying, preventing, and suppressing communicable diseases in humans, i.e. dealing with issues of the frequency and spread of diseases, the aetiology, maintenance or disappearance from the human population, all with the aim of planned influence to reduce the frequency of diseases or that some diseases are even completely eradicated by preventive measures before their appearance and suppression, i.e. direct intervention, if they have already appeared, to reduce the number of patients as much as possible. The Service is the national contact for international cooperation through the International Health Regulations (IHR) the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Commission’s Early Warning System (EWRS) as well as National focal points for group of diseases such as Emerging and vector-borne diseases and Food and water-borne diseases.

The Department for Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases of the Croatian Institute for Public Health will contribute to the CROOH project by including the Department for Zoonoses, Emergent and Reemergent Diseases, and Food and Waterborne Diseases.

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FACULTY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE UNIVERSITY OF ZAGREB (FVMUZ)

The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Zagreb (FVMUZ) is a public institution responsible for university study courses. It performs scientific and professional work in the realm of biomedicine and health, in the field of veterinary medicine and other related areas, as well as educational life-long learning programmes for doctors of veterinary medicine. It was founded for over one hundred years ago, as one of the oldest faculties in the Republic of Croatia, and by its long tradition and established criteria of excellence, is inseparable from the development of the veterinary profession in the territory of Croatia.

Apart from education and scientific research, the Faculty conducts many professional activities in many fields, such as: veterinary public health and environment protection, clinical and in-field diagnostics, treatment and prevention of illnesses of animals and zoonoses, supervision and professional expertise in the field of veterinary medicine and breeding of animals, research and production of medication intended for the protection of animal health, designing and organizing livestock production, and hygiene and technology in the production of foodstuffs of animal origin.

People involved in the CROOH project are working in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases with the Clinic. The department’s scope of work is diagnostics, surveillance and research of veterinary infectious diseases, zoonoses and epidemiology. Several national reference laboratories for diagnosing infectious diseases are an integral part of the department.

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Steering Committee

The Project has a Steering committee (SC) composed of working package (WP) leader, administrative personnel from WP1, and two representative from CIPH.

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Project team

The Project team (PT) consists of SC members and all participants in the project.