Command and control during an outbreak

sector of many animal health programmes and functions which have traditionally been the responsibility of governments, including field veterinary services, veterinary diagnostic laboratories and meat inspection; • separation of policy functions from operational functions: The arms of government responsible for developing policy and for advising ministers on policy matters are administratively quite separate from those who are operationally responsible for managing major government programmes. The CVO may be in either section; however, it is preferable for the CVO to be part of the central policy unit in order to have full influence at that level. • separation of veterinary laboratories from the field command: In many countries, national veterinary laboratories are under the authority of or have been transferred to research administrations, thus weakening linkages with the CVO and with field veterinary services.

These new structures are frequently not conducive to the mounting of an effective and timely response to an animal health emergency. Countries should review their situation with a view to establishing the most appropriate structures and lines of responsibilities which can be rapidly and seamlessly put in place when an emergency arises. This may include organizing one or more of the following well in advance of any emergency: • An agreement that animal health emergencies will be handled at the national level, and that the CVO will assume overall responsibility and have the authority for responding to the emergency, and will be directly answerable to the minister in this role; • An agreement with regional or provincial authorities that their own veterinary staff will come under the line management of the national CVO for an animal health emergency response programme. Arrangements also need to be put in place to ensure that regional field and laboratory veterinary services are fully involved in emergency preparedness planning and training activities, and in collaboration with national veterinary headquarters in providing early warning of emergencies (including emergency disease reporting to national headquarters); • Similar arrangements for all essential government veterinary services, including the central veterinary laboratory, to come within the command structure of the CVO (if not already so) for the purposes of the emergency response; • Pre-existing contractual agreements for private-sector veterinary organizations, universities and other academic institutions and research institutes to provide essential services during an animal health emergency; • Negotiation with the national veterinary association or national veterinary governing body (if one exists) of terms and conditions, including conditions of remuneration, for hiring of practitioners and other private-sector veterinarians as temporary government veterinary officers if needed.

command and control durIng an outbreak

It is common for the chain of command to include three levels, sometimes described as Gold, Silver and Bronze. This is the same as the structure proposed during the preparation and planning phase, although the functions change. As well as being functionally appropri-