What we do
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) teams at the country, regional and global levels partner with governments and facilitate regional coordination to prevent, detect and respond to disease spread. Equipment is provided, and experts are deployed to outbreak areas to facilitate rapid response. This has enabled animal health services to prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases at the source.
Our focus
Through the work of ECTAD, FAO forecasts upcoming outbreaks by conducting studies and analysis to better understand viruses and how human and animal behaviour can affect disease spread. FAO supports early disease detection by providing essential diagnostic equipment and improving the infrastructure of national laboratories. These actions help to reduce the time taken from field sampling to accurate diagnosis of priority zoonotic diseases, thereby leading to faster and more effective response.
ECTAD achievements in 2023
Over the course of 2023, FAO significantly expanded its reach, increasing the number of Member Nations hosting FAO ECTAD teams from 37 countries at the start of 2022 to 50 Member Nations by the end of 2024. A total of 93 different projects at the national, regional and global levels were implemented throughout the year, addressing critical issues such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and disease outbreaks, as well as capacity-building activities that enhance countries’ disease surveillance, reporting and response systems.
FAO developed and reviewed 20 national strategies, as well as policies, laws and legal frameworks, in six different countries, strengthening legal support for strong and resilient national public health systems. FAO ECTAD also conducted nearly 330 trainings in 29 different countries, reaching 7 500 people (25 percent of whom were women).
Over the course of 2023, FAO ECTAD assisted in the investigation of and response to nearly 250 outbreaks caused by more than 20 different diseases. The strengthened animal health capacities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have enabled many countries to rapidly address a range of new diseases that emerged over the last 15 years. This includes various strains of new highly pathogenic avian influenza, goat plague in East Asia, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), which originates in bats and is hosted in camels, Ebola in West and Central Africa, and more recently African swine fever (ASF) in Cambodia, China, Myanmar and Viet Nam – which poses a significant threat to the pig industry and jeopardizes food security in Asia.
By supporting national governments’ training capacities and providing control equipment, FAO contributed to the tackling of avian influenza, with the prevalence of the disease reduced from over 60 countries globally to a handful of countries. FAO also supported animal health services in Member Nations to contribute to the COVID-19 pandemic surveillance and response under the One Health approach utilizing laboratory and community animal health services.
FAO Strategic Framework 2022-2031
A world facing escalating threats demands that we act without delay to safeguard life, transform our agrifood systems to future-proof our planet and lock in sustainable outcomes. This is why ECTAD supports the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 which articulates FAO’s vision of a sustainable and food secure world for all, in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 seeks to sustain the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind. FAO ECTAD contributes to this framework through its work in the One Health, the Agriculture and Food Emergencies and the Resilient Agrifood Systems Priority Programme Areas (PPAs).