Lumpy skin disease and bluetongue training of trainers (in FYR of Macedonia)

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a vector-borne pox disease of cattle characterized by the appearance of skin nodules. Long restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, LSD has slowly invaded new territories over the past decade (Middle East, Turkey, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Russian Federation). Official veterinarians, cattle farmers and others along the value chain are therefore unfamiliar with the disease’s clinical presentation, its transmission routes, and available prevention and control options.

Bluetongue (BT) is also an insect-transmitted viral disease of domestic and wild ruminants with the ability to rapidly spread across national borders and reach epidemic proportions, thus requiring regional cooperation in prevention, control and eradication of the disease. BT situation in the Europe has considerably changed in recent years with incursions of new serotypes.

Both diseases have dramatic effects on rural livelihoods, but also at national level due to trade restrictions. The latest developments with the outbreaks of BT and LSD put to the test the veterinary services in the Balkan region.

Because of the above, FAO aimed to increase the awareness for this two diseases and to strengthen the capacity of the veterinary service of the FYR of Macedonia for early detection and effective control and eradication of the afore mentioned diseases, taking into account the lessons learned from the crisis faced in the Balkans due to the epidemics of BT (2014) and LSD (2016). A two-level train-of-trainer/cascade training was implemented to reach official veterinarians from the Food and Veterinary Agency (FVA), plus all veterinarians in private veterinary practices contracted with the government across all seven regions of the country.

Tsviatko Alexandrov (Bulgarian Food Safety Authority) and Blagojcho Tabakovski (FVA) were engaged in designing two-stage training modules.

Module 1 to train the core trainers was a 2-day workshop held in Skopje on 13-14 September 2017 at FVA. Eleven official veterinarians from the different regions, plus additional participants from FVA’s head office in Skopje were trained. PowerPoint presentations were prepared as master copies (see below).

Module 2 to train the rest of veterinarians, plus several livestock advisors from the National Extension Agency consisted of 1-day trainings of trainers were held between 10 and 26 October 2017 in seven major cities (Gevgelija, Kratovo, Prilep, Kicevo, Sveti Nikole, Skopje and Tetovo). The Module 1 core trainers were responsible for conducting the trainings.

A total number of 281 participants has been trained, which represents over 75% of the veterinarians (both official and private) that engage in conducting animal health public work. Each of the trained veterinarian received a copy of Lumpy Skin Disease field manual for veterinarians in Macedonian (also available in English, Russian, Albanian, Macedonian, Serbian and Turkish).

In addition, a 60-second video was produced to increase public awareness on the early detection and notification of LSD and BT, and to improve on-farm biosecurity measures. The video is available in Macedonian  and Albanian  in FVA’s website.

 

Presentations

Introduction
Blagojcho Tabakovski, DVM, Head of unit for Animal Health

Bluetongue in the region
Tsviatko Alexandrov, DVM, PhD, FAO International consultant; Simona Tchakarova, Head of BG NRL for BT

BT in Republic of Macedonia
Blagojcho Tabakovski DVM, Head of unit for Animal Health

LSD in the region
Tsviatko Alexandrov, DVM, PhD, FAO International consultant

LSD in Republic of Macedonia
Blagojcho Tabakovski, DVM, Head of Unit for Animal Health

Bluetongue
Tsviatko Alexandrov, DVM, PhD, FAO International consultant

Epidemiology of LSD
Blagojcho Tabakovski, DVM, Head of Unit for Animal Health

When BT and LSD go wild……
Tsviatko Alexandrov, DVM, PhD, FAO International consultant; Simona Tchakarova, Head of BG NRL for BT

Disease notification and follow up activities
Blagojcho Tabakovski DVM, Head of unit for Animal Health

Measures in case of LSD & BT
the case of Bulgaria
Tsviatko Alexandrov, DVM, PhD, FAO International consultant; Simona Tchakarova, Head of BG NRL for BT

Biosecurity measures on holding
Blagojcho Tabakovski DVM, Head of unit for Animal Health

Personal biosecurity measures
Blagojcho Tabakovski DVM, Head of unit for Animal Health

Stamping out strategies
Tsviatko Alexandrov, DVM, PhD, FAO International consultant

Vaccination against LSD and BT
Tsviatko Alexandrov, DVM, PhD, FAO International consultant; Simona Tchakarova, Head of BG NRL for BT

LSD/BT outbreak investigation
Tsviatko Alexandrov, DVM, PhD, FAO International consultant

Basic epidemiology
Blagojcho Tabakovski DVM, Head of Unit for Animal Health