Effective animal diseases surveillance, preparedness and responses rely on good field epidemiology and laboratory diagnostic capacities of the animal health service systems. Viet Nam Department of Animal Health (DAH) Epi-Labnet meeting brings together epidemiologists, laboratory diagnosticians, and experts from seven regional animal health offices (RAHOs), National Centre for Veterinary Diagnosis, and the development partner to share information on the regional and global situation of animal diseases, identify main challenges and solutions for improving DAH field epidemiology and laboratory diagnostic capacities.

With financial support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Department of Animal Health (DAH) collaborated with Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) organized the 19th Network of Epidemiology and Laboratory (Epi-Labnet) meeting in Vinh City, Nghe An Province from 15 to17 March 2023.

The meeting emphasized the needs to establish a legal basis for proficiency testing, a general system for managing laboratories, programs for interlaboratory comparison and laboratory evaluation, reference laboratories, training programs for epidemiologists, laboratory diagnosticians. Finalizing the integration of surveillance results into Vietnam Animal Health Information System (VAHIS) and expanding the system were raised during the meeting. The meeting concluded with specific tasks proposed to be implemented by epidemiology divisions and laboratories under DAH and the commitment from development partners to strengthen DAH capacities for animal disease surveillance, diagnosis, notification, and response.