Good emergency management practice: the essentials

Page 60

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Good Emergency Management Practice: The Essentials

Several computerized animal health information systems are available. One possible system is the transboundary animal disease information system (TADinfo). This has been developed by FAO and is particularly useful for handling disease emergency situations. It is also used for routine/endemic diseases. The programme can be obtained from FAO2, and FAO can provide assistance in installing it.

Laboratory diagnostic capabilities The rapid and definitive diagnosis of diseases can only be assured in properly equipped laboratories. Such a laboratory will have a capacity to conduct a range of standardized diagnostic assays, with trained, experienced staff and a sufficient throughput of diagnostic specimens to maintain proficiency. There are many different types of assays, but on many occasions, definitive diagnosis will depend on detecting the presence of the organism (i.e. tests that detect part or all of the organism rather than antibodies). Assaying antibodies is also important, often simpler to carry out, and is important in the ‘proof-of-freedom’ phase. Development of diagnostic expertise for TADs for assays which require handling the live agent should only be attempted in microbiologically highly-secure (biosafe) laboratories. This is particularly true where the organism has zoonotic potential. Biosafety (biocontainment) is important. The tests to be used should be internationally validated and must be safe for the operators and sustainable. It may not always be possible to have fully confirmatory tests for all the pathogens responsible for the priority diseases. Recent developments, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assays, offer the possibility of rapid, sensitive and specific tests for pathogens, but maintaining such a facility is not always easy. Reagents are expensive and go out of date, and maintaining a sufficiently trained staff requires frequent refresher or training courses. It would therefore be impractical and excessively costly for most countries to maintain a national veterinary diagnostic laboratory that has full capabilities for confirmatory diagnosis of all transboundary and other emergency diseases, many of which will be exotic. For very high-threat TADs, consideration should be given to developing capabilities for some key diagnostic tests (e.g. antigen and antibody detection tests). The OIE Manual of Standards for Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines provides authoritative information on diagnostic procedures for a range of important diseases. Laboratories should make specimen transport containers readily available for field veterinary officers and specialist diagnostic teams. These should ideally consist of leak-proof primary containers, such as polystyrene or polyurethane universal bottles with a screw-cap. These are then packed into a leak-proof secondary container (e.g. a wide-opening canister) with absorbent material and an ice pack (where chilling is required). This is finally placed into a robust outer container with good labels. Specimen advice notes should also be provided. It should also be normal practice to send samples to regional and world reference laboratories for confirmation of test results and also to ensure that a complete database of pathogens and regional and worldwide patterns of occurrence can go on record. IATA transport regulations are a specialist area and require conforming to different international 2 http://www.fao.org/ag/AGAinfo/programmes/en/empres/tadinfo/default.html


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D: GEMP checklist

3min
pages 121-124

C: Risk analysis

18min
pages 111-120

A: Animal disease emergencies: their nature and potential consequences

9min
pages 103-106

Technical and financial support

2min
page 100

B: Risk periods

7min
pages 107-110

Restocking

2min
page 99

Stopping vaccination

2min
page 96

Recovery and rehabilitation of affected farming communities

2min
page 98

Declaration of official recognition of animal disease status

3min
page 97

Communication guidelines – press and public during outbreaks

1min
page 91

Local Disease (Animal) Control Centres

4min
pages 87-88

Difficult or marginalized areas

2min
page 90

National Disease (Animal) Control Centre

2min
page 86

Command and control during an outbreak

2min
page 84

Resource plans

1min
page 79

Risk enterprise manuals

1min
page 78

Operational manuals (or standard operating procedures

3min
pages 76-77

The geographical extent of culling: wide area culling or on a risk-assessed basis

2min
page 66

Management information system: the key indicators of progress

2min
page 69

Culling and disposal

2min
page 65

Contingency plan contents

6min
pages 72-75

Outbreak investigation

1min
page 70

Submission of samples from initial events to regional and world reference laboratories

1min
page 62

Animal health information systems

2min
page 59

Laboratory diagnostic capabilities

2min
page 60

Training veterinarians and other animal health staff

2min
page 55

Other strategies

2min
pages 51-52

Interface between field veterinary services and livestock farmers/traders

2min
page 54

Live bird marketing systems

2min
page 49

Developing cross-border contacts with neighbouring administrations

2min
page 46

Risk analysis processes in animal disease emergency planning

4min
pages 39-40

Incorporating risk analysis into the contingency plan

2min
pages 41-42

Illegal imports

2min
page 45

Updating disease plans

1min
pages 35-36

Contingency plans and operations manuals

2min
page 32

Public awareness

2min
page 34

A national disaster plan

3min
pages 18-20

Surveillance systems

2min
page 31

Compensation policy

2min
page 30

Factors affecting the frequency, size and length of disease emergencies

3min
pages 14-15

Role of central government, local authorities and the private sector

3min
pages 25-26

The required elements of preparedness planning

2min
page 17

Financing

2min
page 29

The value of planning for emergencies

2min
page 16
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