The ISAVET is enhancing skills of field veterinary epidemiologists to deliver animal health services.©FAO

The programme is enhancing the skills of field veterinary epidemiologists to deliver animal health services

09 June 2022, Bishoftu - With the funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, launched the second cohort of Frontline In-Service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (ISAVET)  in Ethiopia. Thirty frontline veterinary staff from nine regional states and Diredawa City are participating in the training program to build their field veterinary epidemiology skills in delivering animal health services in the country.

While opening the training, Dr. Yismashewa Wogayehu, the Director of Epidemiology, who represented Dr. Fikru Regassa, State Minister and Chief Veterinary Officer, Ministry of Agriculture, appreciated the technical and financial support of FAO in enhancing the capacity of the animal health workforce, which lays a foundation for the institutionalization of the ISAVET program in the country. "The field epidemiology training is a flagship capacity building program for the animal health sector of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Government will soon embed it in the national professional continuous development framework," he added.

Ethiopia is striving to build the veterinary workforce's competence and skills in veterinary epidemiology to meet the challenges of ever-increasing emerging animal health problems and public health threats in the One Health approach to achieve the goals of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).

In 2020, FAO supported the training of 26 animal health staff who graduated through the first cohort ISAVET program. The trainees acquired skills to conduct surveillance and outbreak investigation, detection, and response to endemic and emerging high-impact animal health threats, including zoonosis. This ongoing training benefits from lessons learned from the first cohort, particularly in program management and quality assurance..

Workicho Jateno, the Assistant FAO Representative in Ethiopia, reaffirmed FAO's commitment to supporting the implementation of the ISAVET program."FAO is committed to working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, and the College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture to successfully implement this Program, which the Ministry will take over," he said.

The training will run for one month in classroom training at Bishoftu and three months of home-based field project study.

FAO organized the ISAVET as part of the implementation of the GHSA project. The objective of the 2016 – 2022 project is to achieve a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats, whether naturally occurring, accidental, or deliberately released. It is implemented in 14 countries in Africa, including Ethiopia.

For more information, please contact:

Rachel Nandelenga

Communications Consultant

FAO Ethiopia  

Email: [email protected]