Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD)
Asia and the Pacific Region

Building capacity through a digital learning platform that is engaging, interactive, and reaches a broad audience in the region — leaving no one behind

The FAO Virtual Learning Centre for Asia and the Pacific (VLC RAP) is a digital learning platform tailored to the region’s needs. Our mission is to deliver a distinctive training experience that is inclusive and engaging, and provide high-quality resources using a variety of methodologies. VLC RAP was initially established to support animal health practitioners to improve their animal disease prevention and control skills. It has been progressively expanded to cover other issues such as One Health, livestock production and sustainable agrifood systems.
Current and ongoing courses and products
Lumpy skin disease (LSD) preparedness course (Indonesia)

Open-access course (Bahasa), March 2023
This course is designed to support Indonesia in controlling LSD. It will build capacity in detection, prevention and control of LSD, covering a range of topics including clinical signs, sampling, laboratory diagnosis, outbreak investigation and disease control measures. The course is in Bahasa and adapted from the materials that were developed under a partnership between the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD), the FAO Regional Office for Europe and the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute.

African Swine Fever Virtual Learning Hub for Asia and the Pacific
African swine fever (ASF) virtual learning hub for Asia and the Pacific

Open for registration, (click to register)
This virtual learning hub provides links to useful information, education and communication materials related to ASF, developed by FAO and partners. It aims to support Member Nations to build their technical expertise on ASF preparedness, response and recovery.  

 

Previous courses and products
FMD emergency response courses for Indonesia (Bahasa)
Foot-and-mouth disease emergency response course for Indonesia

Tutored and self-paced course, September 2022 - January 2023
V
LC RAP delivered three online courses for Indonesia as a part of emergency management support. It was a joint effort in collaboration with the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD), FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Indonesia, Emergency Management Centre (EMC) and Emergency Prevention System for Animal Health (EMPRES).

Virtual Regional Training on Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacteria
Virtual regional training on surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from healthy food animals

Tutored course, August - September 2022
This course is designed to build capacity in monitoring and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria from healthy food animals, covering a range of topics including sampling strategies, sample collection and transport, laboratory testing and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) data management and reporting. The course comprises of two parts with different target groups: epidemiology and laboratory testing.

FETPV training resource portal for Asia and the Pacific
Field epidemiology training program for veterinarians (FETPV) training resource portal for Asia and the Pacific

This resource portal serves as a repository with various learning materials across different topics of veterinary epidemiology. It aims to support lifelong learning for FETPV trainees and alumni and anyone who is interested in learning about veterinary epidemiology.

Concepts of One Health for the Pacific
Concepts of One Health for the Pacific

Tutored course, November 2021
This course is focused on building field capacity to integrate wildlife and ecosystems elements to solve One Health challenges. The primary audience for the course are technical officers at senior and middle-level, in the field of animal health and production, public health, environment/natural resources, forestry, and natural disaster management departments of government, and non-government organizations of the Pacific island countries. 

Virtual Regional Training on Value Chain Analysis for Animal Disease Risk Management
Virtual regional training on value chain analysis for animal disease risk management

Tutored course, August 2021

This course aims to build the animal health officers’ understanding of value chain analysis for animal disease control.

Lumpy Skin Disease Preparedness Course for Pakistan
Lumpy skin disease (LSD) preparedness course for Asia and the Pacific

Tutored course, January - February 2021
This course is designed to build capacity in detection, prevention and control of LSD, covering a range of topics including clinical signs, sampling, laboratory diagnosis, outbreak investigation and disease control measures. It was organized by VLC and conducted through the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD) v-learning platform.

Related links
Upcoming courses and products
  • Scenario-based learning for African swine fever (ASF) management in smallholder settings in Asia, April/May 2023
  • R-FETPV Preliminary Online Course for First Module (2023 cohort), April-May 2023
  • Introductory course on One Health at the human-environment-wildlife-livestock (HEWILI) interface for ASEAN member countries, May 2023
  • Avian influenza active surveillance online course for Asia and the Pacific, July 2023