@fao-RNE participants at the workshop

In collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) organised in Cairo an Expert Consultation on Contingency Planning for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the Near East and North Africa region on 18 and 19 December 2016.

The consultation aimed at increasing awareness on the ongoing intercontinental HPAI spread and strengthening countries’ preparedness through reviving existing contingency plans or designing new ones in order to detect, prevent and respond to possible HPAI outbreaks in the region.

Attended by chief veterinary officers, veterinary epidemiologists and lab experts from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Yemen, the consultation was facilitated by experts from FAO as well as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). 

The two days consultation was an opportunity for knowledge sharing among the experts who agreed on a set of recommendations:

1. Countries to elaborate contingency plans for avian influenza control updating (if available) according to new realities including epidemiological, socio-economical and legislative.
2. Countries to test contingency plans for avian influenza with a simulation exercise (table top or field) involving all relevant stakeholders.
3. Encouraged countries to establish a One Health platform to promote and implement the contingency plan.
4. Requested countries to review and strengthen their capacity with the support of international organisations in terms of laboratory and epidemiology to allow for rapid detection and response to avian influenza outbreaks.
5. Encouraged countries to revise and update the surveillance strategy for avian influenza for early detection of virus incursion and to timely notify outbreaks (in poultry and dead wild birds).
6. Strongly recommended implementation of compensation mechanisms (with a compensation scheme based on species, age and function of the birds) to encourage stakeholders to report suspicions and allow for early detection of avian influenza virus and limitation of the spread.
7. Advised countries for vaccination against avian influenza virus, if allowed, to be based on a risk assessment and a careful cost-benefit analysis and with an exit-strategy planned from the beginning.