SEACFMD Joint LabNet EpiNet Virtual Meeting

For all the SEACFMD member countries, efficient surveillance is the core for any FMD activities including monitoring of their respective FMD situations, early detection of outbreaks and initiation of emergency responses, data collection to inform any control/prevention activities, and assessment of the impact of any interventions. While all countries in the region have a FMD surveillance system, our experience shows that there are areas where countries can further improve in order to improve its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The SEACFMD Roadmap 2021-2025 which was endorsed in December 2020 also entails an output of “fit-for-purpose and sustainable FMD surveillance established”. To maintain the regional coordination of LabNet and EpiNet activities and to support the SEACFMD member countries to strengthen their capacity in FMD surveillance, the OIE SRR-SEA organised a joint virtual LabNet-EpiNet meeting on 23 February 2021. The meeting mainly focused on the FMD surveillance and had the following objectives:

to provide an update on the regional FMD situation based on the OIE WAHIS and ARAHIS database and on the recent LabNet-EpiNet activities
to introduce the key principles of setting fit-for-purpose FMD surveillance programme
to share the recent experience in Lab-/Epi-related FMD surveillance between member countries
to discuss the way forward to further strengthen the networks between meetings

The 2-hour virtual meeting involved a mix of presentations and discussions, based on which recommendations on the approaches to improve FMD surveillance were formulated.

Concept note

Agenda

Participant list