EuFMD’s mission is to improve preparedness for management of FAST disease amongst its Member Nations, sustain, and enhance the GF-TADs Global strategy on increasing security in the availability and activities included in the current EuFMD workplan include: 

Increasing preparedness for the use of vaccination in emergency response for FAST diseases by better understanding issues that limit capacity for implementing emergency vaccination and establishing systems to improve availability and immediate procurement of quality vaccines; 

Improved security in FMD vaccine supply: through the support to the Public Private Sector Platform (PPSP) for vaccine security. 

There is recognition of the importance of a multi-stakeholder platform with greater engagement of the private sector to address many of the challenges in improving vaccine security. One initiative in relation to long term agreements for emergency reserve mechanisms, such as the “Assured Emergency Supply Options (AESOP)” is the Pre-Qualification (PQv) of vaccines for FAST diseases. A Proposal for a PQv system endorsed by 44th General Session of EuFMD in April 2021 following consultation and through close cooperation with the International Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) as partner organizations establishing PQv for FAST diseases should also help address the need identified by FAO for moving from case-by-case tenders to long term agreements (LTA) with vaccine suppliers to better meet the need for timely and efficient response. A PQv procedure will also provide a mechanism to accelerate the tender process by establishing a ‘benchmark’ for the quality of FAST vaccines and manufacturers. 

EuFMD has established an in-house team to support the PQv initiative and has begun the process for creating the framework to ensure the PQv procedure has the necessary technical resource, administrative procedures and governance. The Standing Committee for PQv (SCPQv) will play a critical role in the governance and operation of the PQv procedure and as a committee to review evaluation reports prepared by an independent technical expert group. 

A follow up Public and Private Sector Platform (PPSP) virtual workshop on Vaccine Security ‘Improving security of supply through enhanced cooperation’ is planned for 25 January 2022 as a follow up to the meeting to ‘Explore options to improve security of vaccine supply against Foot-and-Mouth and other similar transboundary diseases’ FAO, Rome, Italy 22-23 January 2020. Terms of Reference for the Standing Committee on PQv.