In Europe and Central Asia, FAO has remotely trained hundreds of animal health professionals in African swine fever (ASF) preparedness. African swine fever is a viral disease of pigs (and wild boar) with a lethality rate of up to 100 percent that leads to huge economic losses, trade disruptions, and challenges to livelihoods. Rampaging throughout three continents, never before in history has the disease had such a wide distribution with so many millions of pigs affected and killed.

In 2007, ASF jumped outside Africa and into Georgia, and gradually spread westwards into Central Europe and eastwards all the way into China. The disease spreads mostly through the movement of infected meat, so any country in the world with a pig sector is at a high and imminent risk of an incursion of the virus and should prepare accordingly.

To ensure optimal preparedness, early detection, and response against an incursion, it is paramount to reach and train first responders – the veterinarians. Yet field veterinarians are in the field, all over the country, making the endeavour expensive and time-consuming to train them face-to-face, even through cascade or train-the-trainer approaches. Moreover, FAO could not keep up with requests for face-to-face trainings coming from affected and at-risk member countries.