24 January 2022- The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Veterinary Services of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADER), holds this Monday, the launch ceremony of the Training program in Veterinary Epidemiology (ISAVET), in the Province of Manica, district of Gondola.

The training covers 25 technicians from the provinces of Manica, Tete, Zambézia and Sofala, within a total of 75 technicians across the country, who will be trained for early detection and rapid response in the prevention and control of transboundary animal diseases, infectious diseases emerging diseases, zonal diseases (transmissible to humans) and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance.

It is expected that with this training, the veterinary services in the country will be reinforced with qualified personnel in the field of epidemiological surveillance, prevention and control of diseases in animals, and that the capacity to investigate outbreaks of disease in the field will be increased.

The In-Service Applied Epidemiology for Veterinarians (ISAVET) training programme is part of the global health security agenda. This programme is designed to meet the critical need of veterinary field epidemiologists who can describe epidemiological events for specific diseases in animals. The ISAVET programme is tailored to the needs of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADER) and is aimed at veterinarians and animal health professionals in their workplaces at the local level, who are responsible for data collection, outbreak detection, reporting and application of initial control measures and interventions against animal and other diseases of public health importance (zoonoses).