Epidemic Intelligence Webinar Series for the Asia-Pacific Region

Epidemic Intelligence Webinars: Event-Based Surveillance for Animal Health in the Asia-Pacific Region

About the series

This three-part webinar series helped WOAH focal points and partners in Asia-Pacific make better use of epidemic intelligence for event-based surveillance, so that threats to animal health are detected and acted on earlier.

Epidemic intelligence conducted at WOAH is defined as the cycle of organised and standardised collection, analysis, and interpretation of information from multiple sources (official and non-official) to detect, verify, and investigate potential animal health risks promptly, in accordance with WOAH’s mandate when relevant.

This work is systematic or conducted on an ad hoc basis depending on the source of information. Epidemic intelligence includes risk monitoring and risk assessment, allowing for prompt and effective risk management and communication while fostering multisectoral collaboration via a One Health approach.

Epidemic intelligence aims to ensure a timely response, based on adequate risk assessments with recommendations on appropriate health measures.

Regional context

At the regional level, WOAH in Asia-Pacific has launched the ‘Supporting Early Threat Warning’ project to strengthen animal health surveillance and transparency across the region. The project is made possible through a voluntary contribution from the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Australia DAFF) under the WOAH 7th Strategic Plan.

These efforts, primarily through the implementation of WOAH’s event-based surveillance activity (often referred to as ‘rumour tracking’), have yielded substantial results in early threat detection and response.

Focus and objectives

WOAH held the ‘Epidemic Intelligence Webinars: Event-Based Surveillance for Animal Health in Asia-Pacific’ (Sessions 1, 2 and 3) to enhance the understanding and capacity of targeted WOAH focal points in the region. This led to a better understanding of how to use epidemic intelligence effectively and make the most of its benefits for event-based surveillance, thereby improving the sensitivity of local and regional surveillance systems.

The expected result was timely and accurate disease monitoring, identification, reporting and response. The webinars also provided a platform for WOAH Members and partners to share experiences and best practices for epidemic intelligence work in the region, and aimed to enhance connection, collaboration and networking among all participants.

The series consisted of three sessions covering separate topics, as shown below.

Sessions and agendas

Presentations from each session are available below.

2027 webinar series

This webinar series will continue throughout 2027, with four webinars planned. All webinars are proposed for 4 pm Japan Standard Time (JST). The proposed dates are shown below.

Please note that these dates are proposed and will be confirmed nearer the time.