Risk mitigation
Through risk mitigation, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) aims to strengthen surveillance and early warning systems through supporting countries to:
- identify potential animal and zoonotic disease threats through a risk-based approach and detailed understanding of value chains;
- develop and share risk reduction strategies through multistakeholder engagement;
- estimate the burden of disease and evaluate the effectiveness of control measures; and
- enhance emergency responses to priority diseases, such as African swine fever (ASF) and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), minimizing the impacts of disease outbreaks and supporting livelihoods.
Early warning
Early warning systems based on risk forecasting, early case detection, rapid reporting, analysis and multistakeholder engagement allow for timely dissemination of relevant information so that individuals and organizations can take appropriate actions to reduce risks. FAO has supported countries to develop field reporting and management systems for animal health disease events resulting in improvements in country and regional capacity to communicate, analyse and link data through the establishment of real-time surveillance systems, including through interoperable and interconnected electronic reporting systems.
Risk reduction along the value chain
Working with colleagues in FAO Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES), ECTAD is engaging a wide range of value chain actors to implement evidence-based risk management and good practices to mitigate the risk, emergence and spread of disease threats. Our work goes from assessing practices and designing interventions, to their implementation and evaluation to inform evidence-based policies. To achieve this, FAO employs different methods, including expert consultations, to develop guidelines for both the public and private sectors; the assessment of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP); and the analysis of business models through field surveys; and the design and piloting of risk reduction interventions that are co-created with local stakeholders and evaluated to guide scaling-up efforts and inform evidence-based policies.
By combining these different methods with a pragmatic approach that draws attention to the local context and existing resource constraints, FAO is supporting countries to implement inclusive and scalable risk reduction interventions and to improve food safety and livelihoods throughout the value chain.
Surveillance
A robust surveillance system is crucial for countries to understand their local disease situation. It provides them with the necessary evidence to enact targeted disease management programmes and allows for information sharing at the regional level to ensure neighbouring countries are better prepared for the spread of animal diseases.Working closely with countries and partners, FAO ECTAD supports efforts to evaluate and improve disease surveillance capacities, including enhanced cooperation to share information at the regional and global levels. The Organization supports national animal health services to design and implement effective surveillance systems and foster cross-sectoral collaboration at the human-animal-environment interface using joint approaches to counter zoonotic diseases.