Future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in China will likely be detected and contained much more quickly because of number of improvements to China's emergency preparedness, which strengthened the capacity of veterinarians to rapidly detect HPAI in poultry. These improvements are expected to significantly reduce the threat of pandemic influenza and help preserve the livelihoods of many farming families living in mainly rural areas. Importantly, early detection and control of HPAI also will halt its spread to neighbouring countries like Mongolia, Russia, Viet Nam, etc.

The FAO project, funded by the USAID, provided technical assistance to China's agriculture health authorities to achieve the following results:

• Enhanced capacity of high-level field epidemiologists of to deal effectively and efficiently with HPAI and other animal diseases through training under the China Field Epidemiology Training Programme for Veterinarians (China FETPV). The training has produced a pool of competent veterinary field epidemiologists with the capacity to conduct effective and timely outbreak surveillance and investigations of animal diseases. The China FETPV training and FAO’s advocacy for epidemiological issues helped convince the China Agricultural University to incorporate a course on epidemiology in their veterinary training programme. The university has sent three Ph D candidates to Canada for advanced studies and plans to launch the training programme upon their return.

• When dealing with Emerging Infectious Diseases, the One Health Concept was introduced. Under the United Nations Theme Group on Health (UNTGH), coordination among UN agencies, the central government and research institutes affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health and the State Forestry Administration has been strengthened. A multi-disciplinary working group for rabies control has also been established. The working group members include experts from national and provincial agriculture as well as from the public health sector.

Concerns by Mongolia and Russia that Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) may spread beyond China's borders have been reduced by establishing the China-Mongolia Joint Technical Working Group to carry out surveillance for TADs along China's borders with Mongolia and Russia. Russia is currently serving as an observer member.

• The Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture accepted the concept of Public Private Partnership (PPP) introduced earlier by FAO and has designated Guangzhou to be the pilot province for live bird-market biosecurity upgrading using the PPP approach.

*OSRO/RAS/604/USA BABY02 Immediate technical assistance to strengthen emergency preparedness for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in China.