NEWS@RADISCON

Inter-Country Collaboration and Coordination Workshop for Transboundary Animal Disease and Tick-borne Disease Control - Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic, 9-11 March 2003

The final workshop and Chief Veterinary Officers (CVOs) meeting under the RADISCON (Phase One) fund was held in Damascus, the Syrian Arab Republic. The workshop had been organized to review animal health status, disease surveillance and control policy, as well as the future perspective of the RADISCON project.

The RADISCON countries invited to the workshop were the Gulf Cooperating Council (GCC) states, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and Yemen. Presentations included: the status of RADISCON over its five-year existence; the importance and socio-economic effect of TADs in a regional context; the status of GREP; links between the Animal Health Commission for the Near East and North Africa (AHCNENA) and RADISCON; information systems (and the new Java-based TADinfo); contingency planning; the FAO/OIE initiative on the Global Framework for the Progressive Control of FMD and other TADs; risk assessment and modelling in animal health; control of tick-borne diseases; veterinary vaccinology; and performance indicators of veterinary services. The opening ceremony was inaugurated by Dr Nor Al Den Mauna, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Reform, the Syrian Arab Republic, in the company of Dr Mahmoud Taher, FAO Regional Office, the Syrian Arab Republic. It was attended by some 100 people, including members of the press.

Representatives of the attending countries (Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen) presented the status of TADs and their control and shared inputs concerning TADs prevention in the then growing crisis in Iraq. Of note was the need for countries in the region to embark on the OIE pathway for accreditation of rinderpest freedom and to follow through with submission for recognition of freedom from disease and infection.

During the three-day workshop, the participants presented their country reports on the current status of the animal health situation and its constraints; the workshop also focused on TADs and tick-borne diseases. Ticks and tick-borne diseases, as well as RVF, are a great concern in public health, animal health and trade in animal and animal products.

Recommendations from the participants for a possible Phase Two RADISCON are summarized below.

Recommendations for implementation of RADISCON Phase Two (21 countries)

As RADISCON Phase One ended in March 2003, the interested beneficiary countries of RADISCON expressed their strong support for a second phase to:

• harmonized disease data collection, processing and GIS-based analysis, and improve capacities and capabilities for disease surveillance;
• networking in and among the countries;
• the concept of risk-based surveillance and early warning, and a code of conduct for managing disease emergencies;
• decision-support systems for coordinated disease control, provide a forum for decision-makers, and enhance transparency and mutual confidence in disease information exchange;
• capacity and use of the FAO Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries mechanism, including mutual support.

Also included were the following specific inputs:

1. According to priorities that will be defined by each of the four clusters, RADISCON should emphasize and support the surveillance programmes in member countries, in particular concerning:
• disease investigations;
• serosurveillance.
2. Building personal capacities in order to perform surveillance programmes, in particular concerning:
• analysis of data/information;
• sampling techniques;
• risk analysis;
• developing FAO Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries with “deep” expertise.
3. Identifying laboratories and improving their capacities at the regional level for TADs. It is recommended that the following national and central veterinary diagnostic laboratories provide regional/subregional assistance to RADISCON member countries:
• Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran as foot-and-mouth diagnosing centres;
• Turkey as a rinderpest and peste de petits ruminants diagnosing centre;
• the Syrian Arab Republic and the Islamic Republic of Iran as bacteriology (Brucellosis) diagnosing centres;
• Yemen and Egypt as Rift Valley fever diagnosing centres.
4. Supporting the existing national network, in particular in terms of:
• database sharing;
• improved compliance (within the clusters and the OIE), harmonization and sharing of animal health reports;
• upgrading existing equipment, software (computers, electronic links, global positioning system [GPS] units, TADinfo and other packages).
5. Strategic control at a cluster level, in particular for:
• adoption of vaccination programmes for TADs at the regional level;
• strategic use of vaccines;
• border harmonization of control measures.
6. Countries that continue to vaccinate against rinderpest should cease this activity as rinderpest has not been reported in the area since 1996. Countries should follow the recommendations of the GREP Secretariat (FAO Animal Health Service) and embark on the OIE pathway of freedom from rinderpest.
7. RADISCON National Liaison Officer should be a high-level professional within the Veterinary Service's Epidemiologic Unit.
8. Coordination of activities, as presented in the GF-TADs, is endorsed.

The FAO Animal Health Service is grateful to the Syrian Arab Republic's Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Health Department, and the FAO Representative in the Syrian Arab Republic for their kind support, and extends special thanks to all participants, international experts and consultants for their valuable presentations and contributions.

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