FAO launches training to strengthen epidemiological capacity of Kingdom’s veterinary services

AMMAN — The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), with funding from the Defence and Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)- US and in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Royal Veterinary College - UK launched the Field Epidemiology Training Programme for Veterinarians (FETPV).

The four-week training will be delivered in two sessions over a three-month post-mentorship training period.

The main objective of this training is to produce competent field veterinary epidemiologists in Jordan who can interact with animal owners, investigate, assess, analyze, and report the findings of outbreak investigations effectively and rapidly, according to a FAO statement.

The programme is also expected to improve veterinarians’ capacity for animal disease prevention, detection, and response.

FAO conducted a scoping mission to Jordan with the support of the Directorate of Veterinary Services (DVS) in October 2019 to identify and provide the necessary support for strengthening veterinary services in Jordan.

In March 2022, FAO together with the Royal Veterinary College London carried out a follow-up mission to Jordan to assess veterinary epidemiology training needs and gaps, read the statement.

Based on the findings of these two FAO missions and the positive feedback received from the Directorate of Veterinary Services and taking into account the recommendations of the Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) evaluation, the Joint External Evaluation (JEE), and the National Action Plan for Health Security, it was agreed to provide support for epidemiology capacity building in Jordan.

Field epidemiology skills and capacities are at the core of veterinary workforce development as they enable the detection, prevention, control and management of animal diseases, including zoonoses.

One of FAO’s core mandates is therefore to support countries in developing their epidemiology capacity.

This activity is within the framework of the "Strengthening Global Veterinary Epidemiology Capabilities and Rapid Regional Disease Surveillance" project, which assesses the specific needs of Jordan to develop a training programme that fulfils these gaps.

The statement added that an assessment will be carried out in a systematic and harmonised way to allow better data interpretation and comparisons across countries.