An ISAVET trainee collects sample from a cow during feild hands-on training.

This partial graduation will establish a new batch of ISAVET trainees, which will strengthen networks between partners to improve animal health systems in the country

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) held today the

closure workshop, community feedback meeting, and partial certificate handover ceremony of the third cohort of the training of veterinary professionals in field epidemiology. The in-Service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (ISAVET) engaged  40 veterinary professionals to detect, report, and respond to specific zoonotic and animal diseases including transboundary, endemic, emerging, and re-emerging diseases.

Supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the participants attended face-to-face classroom lessons and acquired field practical techniques, on participatory disease search and diagnostics over a period of four weeks to build their capacity in disease surveillance and epidemiological investigation in their respective districts and sub-counties.

The closure workshop of the third cohort of ISAVET was presided by Dr. Anna Rose Ademun Okurut on behalf of Lt.Col. (Rtd) Hon. Bright Rwamirama, Minister of State Animal Industry of the MAAIF, stated that the Ministry will continue to support the districts to ensure that disease outbreaks are reported and controlled timely and efficiently. She also expressed her gratitude to FAO and USAID for their support to the development of the livestock sector and, more particularly, for the capacity building of its staff. She urged the trainees to pay particular attention to details and effectively apply the lessons learned.

The FAO’s Representative in Uganda, Dr. Antonio Querido, represented by the FAO Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Country Team Leader Dr. Willington Bessong Ojong said that field epidemiology training presents unique opportunities for technocrats to uniquely respond and decisively address real problems affecting livestock farmers countrywide, bearing in mind that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and inter-dependent, hence the need to work collaboratively and in a multidisciplinary fashion under the One Health Approach. 

The workshop was also attended by the Mr. Kakaire Alamanzani, who represented the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Jinja, and other high ranking officials and farmers from Jinja District, who thanked FAO and MAAIF for the knowledge shared during the value chain feedback workshop as well as for supporting Jinja District Veterinary Laboratory with test equipment and reagents. According to the CAO, the training will certainly go a long way in promoting the Parish Development Model as per the objectives of the National Development Plan III.

The partial graduands will in the next three months at their various place of work, with technical support from assigned mentors, trainers, and the ISAVET National Steering Committee, be obliged to successfully undertake and complete identified field research activities, and practice field disease investigation and reporting as pre-requisite for a final evaluation that will assess their suitability for final graduation.

ISAVET and the strengthening of national epidemiologic expertise

FAO Uganda, through its Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Disease (ECTAD), ensures that the ISAVET training program bridges the important workforce gap in veterinary epidemiologists at all levels of the health pyramid. This third cohort of ISAVET trainees is expected to establish a network of epidemiologists in the fields of human and animal health to ensure surveillance and control of diseases in the framework of a One Health approach. The training is definitely beneficial.

Through ISAVET, MAAIF is directly involved in the implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005) by strengthening the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathway through more active disease surveillance and control, which increases the sustainability of the program. The number of trained veterinary epidemiologists in the country has increased. Before ISAVET, the MAAIF had less than five Field Epidemiologists trained.

Since the launch of the ISAVET training in 2020, a total of 47 graduates and a total of 15 trainers of trainees (TOTs), and 13 trainers of mentors (TOMs) from various districts and organizations in the country have been impacted. This will certainly contribute to progressively filling the skills gap in epidemiology, especially at district and sub-county levels. The acquisition of these skills will make the livestock sector more resilient to transboundary animal diseases (TADs) such as Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), Foot-and-mouth disease, lumpy skin disease, and priority zoonotic diseases, including rabies, anthrax, avian influenza, etc.

For more information: https://www.fao.org/documents/card/es/c/CA7015EN/

Contact:

Agatha Ayebazibwe

Communications Officer

FAO Uganda

Email: [email protected]

Yanira Santana

Emergency Reporting and Outreach Specialist

Bureau FAO ECTAD Africa

Email: [email protected]