Ha Noi, Viet Nam. In response to the widespread African Swine Fever (ASF) in Viet Nam, the Department of Animal Health (DAH) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has identified the urgent need to assess the risk of ASF spread and to analyze surveillance and outbreak investigation data. In order to equip field veterinary epidemiologist, already trained under FAO-DAH-VNUA (Viet Nam National University of Agriculture) Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (AVET), DAH and FAO Viet Nam Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) organized two advanced AVET courses, on risk assessment and multi-variable data analysis, with the financial assistance from the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

These advanced AVET courses are designed to equip AVET alumni with additional knowledge and skills to review and adjust ASF prevention and control strategy. The first training on risk assessment for ASF spreading was held from 8th to 12th July, 2019 in Ho Chi Minh city with the participation of 19 trainees from DAH, Regional Animal Health Offices (RAHOs) and sub-department of Animal Health from Southern center to Mekong regions and academia. During this training course, the trainees learned and practiced how to make outbreak situation reports describing the temporal and spatial patterns of an epidemic, sampling methods and knowledge-based risk mapping. The participants also identify and rank ASF risk factors based on their field experience.

The second training on multivariable analysis of surveillance and outbreak investigation data was organized from 5th to 16th August, 2019 in Ha Noi. Fifteen representatives from central and regional levels including DAH, the National Centre for Veterinary Diagnostics (NCVD), seven RAHOs and academia together participated the course. During this training, epidemiologists from national and regional levels learned how to apply logistic regression and survival analysis to analyze their collected data from DAH surveillance programmes and outbreak investigations to answer two important questions: “Will the event/disease occur?” and “When will it occur?”. The trainees used the actual ASF outbreak investigation data in Viet Nam from February to June 2019 for the analysis.

The two advanced AVET training courses were successfully conducted. Both FAO and DAH emphasized the significance of using skills from the training to strengthen the government of Viet Nam’s capacity to use the data from ASF outbreak investigation to assess the risk of disease spreading and identify potential critical control measures to prevent spread in the future.