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Early warning and disease intelligence

Countries all over the world continue to be at risk of Verify
animal diseases and related health threats which have Disease information is verified by FAO animal health
the consequence of significant impacts on lives and liveli- officers around the world, in partnership with national
hoods. The most effective way to protect against endemic stakeholders, and with the World Organisation for Ani-
and emerging threats is to strengthen prevention, pre- mal Health (WOAH) and the World Health Organization
paredness and response. Early detection, early warning (WHO).
and rapid response is an essential component of this and Analyse and assess
a lack of timely outbreak reporting and information shar-
ing continues to delay effective management response Disease intelligence and analysis is performed by vet-
and aids the spread of disease within and between coun- erinary epidemiologists, who produce situation updates,
tries. risk assessments, forecasts and early warning alerts.
A comprehensive early warning system requires a co- Disseminate
ordinated effort by governments, communities, resource Decision makers including Chief Veterinary Officers in
partners and international networks – in order to iden- countries are informed directly or through FAO mecha-
tify and understand early signals of emergence, spill nisms such as alerts, risk assessments, or early warning
over and spread of animal pathogens at the local level bulletins and reports – in order to encourage govern-
– including market, social, political and environmental ments to respond appropriately with measures including
signals. Effective early warning systems are needed to surveillance, vaccination or movement control.
prevent the potential catastrophic losses that an animal What have we achieved?
disease threat can cause.
Reliable up-to-date intelligence from FAO and partners
What we do informs stakeholders and the global community to im-
FAO has a long-standing role in global disease intelli- prove preparedness, readiness, response and control of
gence and early warning in animal health as part of its transboundary animal diseases.
role in food chain crisis prevention for food security, For example, several animal health emergencies at the
and for global health security as part of the Global Early animal-human interface, such as highly pathogenic avian
Warning System (with WOAH and WHO). It provides ca- influenza H5N1 and RVF, have been more effectively han-
pacity building at regional or country level, and informa- dled with information sharing and collaboration through
tion management at global level – to improve prepared- GLEWS+.
ness and efficiency of response.
FAO's early warning and risk assessment activities are
Capacity building at country level able to highlight specific threats and model risk. The RVF
FAO supports and strengthens the capacity of veterinary DST has enhanced the Organization’s capacity to identify
services and animal health systems to create and imple- high-risk areas and issue alerts and early warning mes-
ment early warning systems, through providing capacity sages for prevention and control in countries at risk of
development training programmes and the development RVF occurrence. These alerts and messages are issued
and implementation of tools to improve data collection, well before the reporting of the first signs of RVF infection
real time reporting, information sharing and analysis for in the countries with a prediction capacity of at least 1-2
action. mont

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2 Vol. 41 No. 7