Throughout the pandemic, African swine fever (ASF), a viral disease of pigs and wild boar has continued affecting countries and causing serious socio-economic consequences to the swine value chain especially farmers worldwide.
To support countries’ efforts to contain outbreaks of ASF in the Asia Pacific continent and minimize its impacts, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) has reinforced its partnership with SAFOSO to enhance capacity in the region using the ground-up capacity development approach.
Building on trainings and material developed in 2020 by FAO Animal Health Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) at RAP and SAFOSO, with the support from the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of United States Agency for International Development (USAID), FAO RAP has organized trainings for frontline animal health staff using a cascade approach. Around fifty-five trainers from six countries in the region have been trained at the regional-level so far.
The cascade approach is an ideal strategy to train the greatest number of individuals, particularly, when the size of the target group is significant and challenges like COVID-19 forces the shift to remote work.
As the focal part of cascading trainings, the 3rd round of the regional training of trainers (TOT) on ASF detection and emergency response is held from 15 to 26 March 2021. This regional TOT supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) aims to build a pool of around 20 national trainers to deliver further trainings at the country and field levels in Lao PDR, the Philippines and Thailand.
This time around, FAO country teams in charge of animal health in the three target countries will take part in the training with further technical support provided by PHILVET HEALTH SERVICES, Philippines.
Veterinary officials involved in ASF control activities still need skills in detection, prevention and control of ASF. FAO through its ECTAD program and its global and regional partnerships with organizations like SAFOSO and PHILVET, continues to plan and deliver veterinary assistance to FAO member countries that are responding to the threat of transboundary animal health crises.
Every six weeks, the newsletter provides a summary of relevant articles as well as our viewpoint on the news.
The newsletter is free and without obligation. You can unsubscribe from the distribution list at any time.
