Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) - Egypt

ECTAD Egypt contributes in supporting animal disease control
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Egypt has established close ties with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation through the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD). Since 2006, ECTAD has provided technical support for animal diseases early warning (investigation and response, epidemiological surveillance, and laboratory diagnostic capabilities at the central and field levels).
Main Achievements
FAO ECTAD-Egypt has been working specifically with the General Organization for Veterinary Services (GOVS), the National Laboratory for Quality Control of Poultry Production (NLQP) and Central Laboratory for Evaluation of Veterinary Biologics (CLEVB). AHRI-NLQP and CLEVB are two national laboratories of excellence, which contribute significantly to the diagnosis and control of avian influenza and which could be used more effectively by linking diagnosis with rapid response and monitoring of disease control and vaccine use.
The main activities of this collaboration over the past 12 years specifically include (i) strengthening surveillance systems (passive reporting, community animal health outreach, targeted live bird market reporting, and active surveillance), (ii) improvement of laboratory capacities, (iii) genetic and antigenic characterization of currently circulating viruses, (iv) laboratory- and field-level vaccine effectiveness trials, as well as (v) disease mitigation and policy advice.
Achievement in points
- Development and sustained implementation of value-chain and risk-based surveillance strategies (Avian Influenza and MERS-CoV). FAO-ECTAD Egypt continues to provide technical and financial assistance to support the implementation of surveillance in Egypt.
- Laboratory diagnostic capacity for surveillance and research has been considerably enhanced through in country and overseas training, provision of equipment, essential consumables and reagents; approximately 16000 pooled samples have been tested under active, passive, targeted surveillance activities, as well as for vaccine evaluation studies.
- Policy dialogue and information/knowledge sharing (i) a comprehensive HPAI compensation scheme designed, (ii) Mass AI vaccination policy in the household poultry sector reconsidered, (iii) animal health component of the integrated national AHI plan revised to reflect the endemic HPAI situation in Egypt.
- Institutional capacity strengthened as faster time to produce confirmatory A/H5N1 diagnosis and outbreak reporting achieved: (i) skilled manpower for HPAI diagnosis made available both centrally and at governorate satellite laboratories; (ii) time of confirmatory diagnosis reduced from several days to less than six hours; (iii) six satellite laboratories in different governorates established and supported to accredited according to international ISO 17025 following international protocols.
- Establishment and operationalization of district-level epidemiological networks in all Egyptian governorates.
- Effective laboratory networking established: Laboratory data and genetic material shared on time with all relevant national and international partners, published on GENE BANK.
- Various types of technical assistance and advice were provided to the General Organization for Veterinary Services (GOVS) to develop sound animal disease control strategies and related instruments (primarily for poultry). For instance, the “Animal health and Livelihood Sustainability Strategy”, a component of the integrated national highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) plans, which reflects the need for longer term risk reduction measure to address endemic A/H5N1 HPAI in Egypt, was developed and approved by MOALR.
- The “Four-way Linking Taskforce” was established and operationalized. It involves key “One Health” stakeholders from animal (MOALR) and public health (MOHP).
- FAO promoted functional public-private partnerships and livelihoods in both technical and policy related interventions.
- Emergency assistance was provided on several occasions to contain outbreaks of high-impact diseases (such as foot-and-mouth disease).
In the face of increasing concerns of emerging pandemic threats (including MERS-CoV, ebola, endemic HPAI, etc.), FAO-ECTAD Egypt, in close consultation with concerned departments of MOALR and other relevant partners, envisaged the implementation of a comprehensive program referred to as EPT-2 (emerging pandemic threat), to consolidate previous FAO/USAID investments in pandemic preparedness and emerging animal diseases focusing on selected strategic areas. The EPT-2 program aims to mitigate the impact of novel high consequence pathogens from animals to humans. These interventions are in line with the current government policies and strategies and will be integrated into the ongoing development actions to ensure the sustainability of the process beyond the project duration.