With funding from USAID, FAO trains animal health professionals in applied veterinary field epidemiology in Cameroon

With funding from USAID, FAO trains animal health professionals in applied veterinary field epidemiology in Cameroon

From June
10 to July 5, 2024, twenty-four staff from MINEPIA, MINFOF, and private
veterinarians attended the basic level Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Field
Training Program (ISAVET), held in the town of Ebolowa.

Over 70% of
emerging infectious diseases in humans originate from animals. Since 2019, the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has been
conducting training for veterinary professionals in field epidemiology (ISAVET)
– basic level. Supported by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) and Texas A&M University, and in collaboration with
African universities, ISAVET aims to develop the skills of animal health
professionals to strengthen their capacity for detection and rapid intervention
based on the integrated “One Health” approach.

Within this
context, the sixth cohort of twenty-four animal health professionals was
trained. The participants in this training course are public-sector employees,
notably from the Ministries of Livestock (MINEPIA) and Wildlife (MINFOF), but
also veterinarians from the private sector in the Centre, South, Littoral,
North-West, West and South-West regions. The Regional Delegation for Fisheries
and Animal Industries in the South region hosted the month-long training
course. The theoretical part of the training was taught for three weeks by nine
trainers and was followed by one week of practical work by a group of five
mentors, who supervised the work on compliance with biosafety measures at farm
level and on techniques for taking, packaging and transporting samples from the
field to the laboratory.

In the
analyses of the first Needs and Readiness Assessment (NRA) conducted in
Cameroon, gaps were identified in human resources. To this end, ISAVET promotes
continuous training in field epidemiology and aims to train a minimum of 744
basic-level field epidemiologists in charge of surveillance and management of
animal disease outbreaks.

At the end
of the course, trainees were satisfied with the quality of the teaching. For
Dr. Paré Nsangou Ibrahim, a private veterinarian in Foumban, ISAVET training
“is a godsend, as a program that strengthens the capacities of health
practitioners in the field of epidemiology resolves the challenges that many
veterinarians face on a daily basis”.  In
the same vein, Bimai Serge Salomon, a senior water and forestry technician
working at the Mengamé gorilla sanctuary in the southern region, admits that
ISAVET training has enabled him, as an eco-guard, “to gain a better
understanding of zoonotic diseases, as well as how to monitor wild animals in
compliance with biosafety and biodiversity measures”.

 

Original
story in French :
6e cohorte
ISAVET : une nouvelle cuv
ée d’épidémiologistes vétérinaires de
terrain form
és|FAO au Cameroun|Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations
 

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