Cairo, Egypt - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through its Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) in collaboration with the General Organization of Veterinary Services (GOVS) started recently, development of a risk map for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) through analytical/predictive modelling using the data collected over the past several years.

The risk map will enable to identify the hotspots for potential emergence and circulation of avian influenza viruses, subsequently guiding the focus of the HPAI surveillance program in the future.

The risk mapping exercise is underway by a team of experienced experts from national and international levels. As part of the exercise and with the view to transfer knowledge and skill to other national experts, FAO in collaboration with GOVS organized a practical training course on risk mapping and spatial analysis, which benefited more than 30 veterinary epidemiologists, animal health specialists and laboratory experts. The training will enhance the technical skill of trainees in statistical and spatial analysis of epidemiological data for conducting predicative modelling and develop risk map for other priority diseases.

Furthermore, the training provided a perfect opportunity to review and validate the draft risk map developed by the team.

Back-to-back with the training program, a half-day validation workshop was organized involving decision makers and senior managers from GOVS and AHRI. The event enabled to validate and redirect the findings of the risk mapping exercise through reviewing the approach, methodology and results of the risk mapping exercise. Agreement has been reached to consider the recommendations of the meeting and finalize the risk map that is expected to guide and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the surveillance program for avian influenza in Egypt.

The event was attended by Dr Abdelhakim Ali, who is the Chairman of GOVS and CVO of Egypt as well as Dr Zelalem Tadesse, FAO-ECTAD Egypt Team Leader along other experts from GOVS, AHRI and FAO.

FAO has been supporting the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) since 2006 in the fight against highly pathogenic influenza (HPAI) by working very closely with GOVS and the National Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control of Poultry Production (AHRI-NLQP) in various areas and pillars for controlling AI disease.