FAO support the launch of the National Veterinary Laboratory Services Strategic Plan and of the Quality Manual of veterinary laboratories
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with the support of the Fleming Fund through and the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the National Veterinary Laboratory Quality Manual and Laboratory Strategic Plan on 12 April 2022 in Nairobi. This strategic plan is anchored in the Directorate of Veterinary Services’ (DVS) strategic plan. Once in place, the strategic plan will enable the national and subnational Veterinary Laboratories to play their role to provide timely laboratory diagnostic services through effective and efficient utilization of available resources.
This is a milestone and a great achievement in the DVS. Veterinary Laboratory Services offer specialized services that include, but are not limited to, diagnosis and surveillance of endemic, emerging and remerging livestock diseases that have heavy impact on food security, livelihoods and human health. For reliability of this service it must be ran by technically qualified personnel by use of specialized equipment and supported by conducive policy documents and systems. For this reason, a National Veterinary Quality Manual and a Strategic Plan for the period 2020-2024 has also been developed to guide the activities that will ensure continual improvement of the National Veterinary laboratory services. The launch of both document took place at the Sarova Stanley Hotel on 12 April 2022.
The launch congregated over 100 stakeholders and partners who have supported financially and technically in the development and validation of the Quality Manual and of the Strategic Plan. During the session, both document were presented, launched and distributed to national and regional laboratories.
One of the main recommendations from the launch was to work on the finalization and launch of the Veterinary Laboratory Policy, a key document to improve the operationalization and performance of the veterinary laboratory network.
FAO, through its Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) has effectively contributed since 2016 to the establishment and improvement of the application of appropriate measures to carry out the diagnosis of infectious animal diseases under satisfactory safety conditions for the handler and the environment. FAO ECTAD continues to develop national technical laboratory capacities for competence and to build a critical mass of laboratory specialists – a strategic imperative to effectively manage transboundary and zoonotic diseases that risk impacting on Kenya’s animal health, public health, economies and livelihoods.
For further information, kindly contact:
Joseph Othieno
National Communications Specialist
FAO Kenya
Email: [email protected]
Yanira Santana
Emergency Reporting and Outreach Specialist
FAO ECTAD Africa