Enables to rapidly detect the introduction of, or sudden increase in, the incidence of any disease of livestock which has the potential of developing to epidemic proportions and/or causing serious socio-economic consequences or public health concerns. It embraces all initiatives mainly based on disease surveillance, reporting and epidemiological analysis that would lead to improved awareness and knowledge of the distribution and behaviour of disease outbreaks (and of infection) and which allow forecasting of the source and evolution of the disease outbreaks and the monitoring of the effectiveness of disease control campaigns.

EMPRES Early Warning Activities:

The GREP is a time-bound programme to eliminate rinderpest from the world by the year 2010. Strategies have been devised and programmes implemented to reduce the clinical incidence of rinderpest to zero. Elimination of disease and infection will be confirmed by statistically valid active disease surveillance programmes.

In order to improve the early detection of Rift Valley fever in West Africa and the control of potential epizootics of the disease in the future, a regional disease surveillance system has been implemented in Mali, Mauritania and Senegal through a FAO Technical Cooperation Programme project (TCP/RAF/8931).

In Latin America and the Caribbean region, the Regional Office, using the EMPRES precepts, has developed an Hemispheric Plan for the Eradication of Classifcal Swine fever in the Americas by 2020 and the Caribbean by 2008. Currently, 20 countries of the Americas have shown their support for the FAO-led campaign and have named national coordinators

FAO, OIE and WHO are currently developing the GLEWS as a joint system that builds on the added value of combining and coordinating the alert and response mechanisms of the three organizations. Through sharing of information on animal disease outbreaks and epidemiological analysis, the GLEWS initiative aims at improving global early warning as well as transparency among countries.

The software development for the Transboundary Animal Disease Information System is underway. TADinfo is structured in a three-tier system - national, regional and global.

TADinfo 'national' with a user-friendly interface should be available to countries for testing in January 1999. TADinfo provides capabilities for storage and management of animal disease data. The programme will be able to perform standard and custom analysis on data and depict information both in report format and geographically through an in-built map viewer.

EMPRES Bulletins
The EMPRES Transboundary Animal Diseases Bulletin is a quarterly publication that began in 1997. The articles included in this publication range from scientific articles provided by FAO EMPRES Collaborating Centres and Reference Laboratories, in-depth analysis of transboundary animal disease (TAD) occurrence and their impact on animal health and food security, EMPRES related project activities, research trends, recent developments in the use of innovative technologies, and outcomes of workshops and mission reports.

The EMPRES Bulletin also includes reports on TADs and risk implications to countries as to their potential spread as well as progress in their control in the affected countries or Regions. The progressive control of TADs is an outcome of the EMPRES-Livestock program and the EMPRES Bulletin informs countries on these critical issues.

EMPRES subscribers list
The EMPRES-Livestock discussion group provides interaction and improved communication among subscribers involved in transboundary animal diseases and emergency prevention systems. Early warning messages are sent on priority animal diseases through the list and are available on the web site as well.

EMPRES also implements Early Warning activities through Technical Cooperation Programme projects.