Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a mosquito-borne viral animal disease which causes periodic severe epidemics, principally involving ruminant animals. As well as its severe socio-economic and public health consequences, this serious transboundary animal disease is a major constraint to international livestock trade. This manual provides information on the nature of RVF and options for its prevention, control and elimination. It outlines a suggested national RVF contingency plan, to be modified to suit the circumstances of individual countries, as well as identifying personnel, equipment and other facilities required.
Designed for veterinarians and animal health professionals, this guide to effective disease surveillance aims to reduce the socioeconomic consequences of Rift Valley fever outbreaks and prevent them where possible.
Rift Valley fever is one of the most significant zoonotic disease problems in Africa. The occurrence of the highly fatal haemorrhagic human disease syndrome, similar to Ebola and other haemorrhagic fevers, generates a degree of panic among the human populations at risk. RVF is highly contagious for humans if animals are viraemic at the time of slaughtering. In susceptible livestock populations, it is responsible for large numbers of abortions and stillbirths. However, one of RVF's greatest impacts is upon trade in livestock. Even if the disease tends to disappear after epizootics, livestock bans may last for several years, severely affecting the livelihood of pastoralists. This manual aims at helping staff from veterinary services and laboratories to recognize the disease rapidly when it occurs. It provides an overview of the disease, describes clinical signs and the most important differential diagnosis, and guides the user on how to proceed if a case of RVF is suspected.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of the most serious transboundary animal diseases. It is a highly contagious viral disease, and may have rapid and unanticipated national and international spread. Although not a very lethal disease for adult animals, it can cause crippling socio-economic consequences, through high production and trade losses. This manual provides information on the nature of FMD and the principles and strategic options for its prevention, control and elimination. Guidelines are provided for individual countries threatened by FMD to formulate their overall national policy on control and eradication of a possible incursion of the disease.
Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an arboviral disease affecting humans and livestock transmitted by mosquitoes. It is endemic to large areas of Africa, resulting in widespread abortion and neonatal mortality in livestock, and severe complications in a small but significant percentage of human cases. The range of RVF is largely determined by the distribution of suitable vector habitat and rainfall, which changes over time and as a result of climate change. In addition to which, the movement of animals and animal products for trade may lead to the spread of RVF to previously non-infected areas. This RVF Action Framework is intended to provide decision makers with guidance on the best course of action to take in response to an RVF outbreak or the risk of an outbreak, and help them develop a national action plan for this response. A coordinated One Health approach that brings together the public, animal and environmental health sectors is recommended, as is a risk-based approach that uses risk assessment and mapping to determine the appropriate measures to be taken and the locations where they are required. A country’s RVF response can be best broken down into the four phases of the epidemiological cycle: the inter-epidemic, pre-epidemic, epidemic and post-epidemic periods. Surveillance, risk assessment and capacity building, for instance, are key during the inter-epidemic period, while the focus during the post-epidemic period shifts to mitigating the disease’s impact.
Animal health emergencies are evolving, but they remain among the most challenging situations a country can confront. Infectious diseases and other threats have increasing potential to spread rapidly within a country or around the world due to growing populations, concentration of animal populations and market intensification, human and animal movement, and global trade. This international GEMP Essentials guide is meant to support the advancement of key components of emergency management as countries continue efforts to work and prepare together. It sets out in a systematic way the elements required to achieve an appropriate level of preparedness and proposes an approach to animal health emergency management inclusive of all type of events, be they caused by natural phenomenon, including not infectious events, or by accidental or deliberate human action. The guide also includes the One Health approach.
The benefit of an adequate framework for the management of animal health emergency operations has been repeatedly shown over the years, highlighting a need to build and upgrade capabilities to effectively and efficiently manage animal health emergency operations at all levels. This need can begin to be met through the guidance provided in this manual. Equipped with practical examples, samples and guidelines, this manual supports countries and relevant local, national, regional and international organizations as they prepare for and manage operations during an animal health emergency. The manual is designed to be used in line with the 'Good Emergency Management Practice: The Essentials' manual, applying Good Emergency Management Practice (GEMP) principles and a One Health approach, and providing a global view of how to act during the peacetime and emergency phases of animal health events. This global manual is presented in such a way that veterinary services and relevel local authorities in countries around the world can use the information therein as guidance to create or adapt their own systems, and build a customized emergency operations management manual.
African swine fever (ASF) is a devastating haemorrhagic viral disease affecting domestic and wild pigs of all ages and sexes. This disease causes massive economic losses, threatens food security and trade, and presents a serious challenge for the pig production sector in affected countries. ASF also threatens the biodiversity conservation of several Asiatic wild Suidae. Since ASF was first introduced in Georgia in 2007, the disease has spread to many countries in Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and in 2021, it was detected in the Caribbean states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, both in the Americas. In much of its Euro-Asiatic range, the African swine fever virus (ASFV) infects wild boar, which sometimes act as the main – if not the only – epidemiological reservoir of the infection, keeping it in the environment regardless of the presence of infected domestic pigs. The presence of the virus in wild boar populations is a continuous health threat for the sympatric domestic pig population, posing a challenge for veterinary and wildlife services that have had little success in attempting to eradicate infections among wildlife, especially in the absence of an effective vaccine. Finally, areas in which ASFV is detected in wild boar remain infected for at least one year after the last recorded case. This is a much longer period than that of domestic animals and puts a strain on the services involved, requiring a considerable amount of work and human and financial resources. The second edition of the handbook provides insights on surveillance and disease management in wild boar based on experiences with ASFV eradication in Belgium and Czechia, as well as other recent experiences in the prevention and control of the disease in wild boar in Europe.
The purpose of document is to provide fact based overview of ASF ecology in the Northern and Eastern European populations of wild boar and briefly describe a range of practical management and biosecurity measures or interventions, which can help stockholders in the countries experiencing large scale epidemic of this exotic disease to address the problem in a more coherent, collaborative and comprehensive way. The handbook should not be viewed as an authoritative manual providing readymade solutions on how to eradicate ASF from wild boar. The facts, observations and approaches described in the document are presented with the intention to broadly inform veterinary authorities, wildlife conservation bodies, hunting community, farmers and general public about complexity of this novel disease and the need to wisely plan and carefully coordinate any efforts aiming at its prevention and control.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 strain has spread from domestic poultry to a large number of species of free-ranging wild birds, including non-migratory birds and migratory birds that can travel thousands of kilometers each year. The regular contact and interaction between poultry and wild birds has increased the urgency of understanding wild bird diseases and the transmission mechanisms that exist between the poultry and wild bird sectors, with a particular emphasis on avian influenza. Monitoring techniques, surveillance, habitat use and migration patterns are all important aspects of wildlife and disease ecology that need to be better understood to gain insights into disease transmission between these sectors. This manual contains chapters on the basic ecology of avian influenza and wild birds, capture and marking techniques (ringing, color marking and satellite telemetry), disease sampling procedures, and field survey and monitoring procedures.--Publisher's description.
