ASF response

After Action Review workshop focusing on African swine fever response

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Background

African swine fever (ASF) is an infectious disease of domestic and wild pigs, caused by ASF virus (ASFV) which is the sole member of the family Asfarviridae. Following the introduction and further spread of ASF in Asia and the Pacific, there has been increasing concern over this disease in Asia and the Pacific.

Malaysia has reported 187 ASF notifications to WAHIS from February 2021 when it was first notified, until December 2022. Of these, 36 have been in Sus barbatus, 57 in Sus scrofa, and 94 in domestic pigs. (WAHIS data source) Considering only Sus scrofa and swine notifications, there are 62.25% of notifications in domestic pigs and 37.75% in wild pigs. ASF has been notified in 9 states or administrative level-1 units in Malaysia.

To enhance the conduct of the AAR, the WOAH Emergency and Preparedness (EPR) Assessment Tool, which was piloted in Malaysia in 2022, will be used in the AAR workshop. The EPR is based on the WOAH’s Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS), which was developed to assess the capacity of VS on emergency preparedness and response. The EPR assessment considered three fundamental components and determined a Level of Advancement of the 20 Emergence Critical Components (ECC’s)(see annex 2). These three components and 20 ECC of the EPR will be used in the conduct of the After – Action Review (AAR) of a recent emergency response to African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks in Malaysia.

The main purpose of the workshop is to conduct AAR focusing on ASF response in line with the EPR CC which was piloted in Malaysia.

 

Objectives

  • Bring together the stakeholders to obtain their feedback on identified aspects of the current ASF animal health emergency;
  • Consolidate key information about the ongoing ASF response;
  • Explore issues that arose during the response and identify potential solutions and areas for improvement in current or future emergencies;
  • Identify areas of the response that worked well, and;
  • Identify practices that should be sustained or modified in the future.
  • Demonstrate the value of AAR in the review of emergency animal health responses and how it might be applied in the future.

 

The workshop will be facilitated by two consultants and two representatives of WOAH Sub-Regional Representation for South-East Asia.