4th GF-TADs East Africa Roadmap Meeting for Foot-and-Mouth Disease
Online,
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) severely affects the productivity of livestock, disrupting regional and international trade in animals and animal products. The most significant impact of the disease in low and middle-income countries is losses in production, utility and income, which together affect livelihoods and impact food security and nutrition of farmers. In order to reduce the FMD burden, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) developed a 15-year Global FMD Control Strategy in 2012.
Foot-and-mouth disease roadmap meetings are organized under the umbrella of the FAO/OIE Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs), by its FMD Working Group, with the technical support from the European Commission for the control of FMD (EuFMD).
In order to assist the East Africa region to strengthen the capacity to effectively respond to this devastating disease, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in close collaboration with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) holds its fourth FMD Roadmap Meeting from 29 to 31 March 2022, which is being organized by the Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs) FMD Working Group. Participants countries include Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Republic of the Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zanzibar and Uganda.
The meeting objectives are:
- Share and review information about changes in risks related to FMDV circulation within the regional ecosystem to support recommendations for the implementation of successful control measures including vaccination strategies;
- Strengthen the understanding of the PCP-FMD principles, and facilitate the application of the PCP-FMD Toolkit including the PCP-FMD Self-Assessment Tool(SAT) and the PCP-FMD Support Officers (PSO) system to assist and guide countries in the development, submission, implementation and monitoring of national strategies;
- Review implementation of recommendations of 3rdEastern Africa Roadmap meeting (3-5 July 2018) and 11th Eastern Africa RAHN (16-17 November 2021);
- Assess and map the progress on FMD control of Eastern African countries by reviewing the outcomes of the ongoing FMD control activities at national levels (outputs of the SAT);
- Update the membership of the FMD Regional Advisory Group (RAG) to monitor and follow-up the regional FMD roadmap recommendations;
- Strengthen the regional epidemiology and laboratory networks for Eastern Africa;
- Update the Roadmap for FMD control in East Africa, using the principles of the PCP-FMD;
- Encourage discussions to identify regional priorities and key support needed by countries from development partners to control FMD and to strengthen their surveillance systems and laboratory capacity.