FAO Inducts 5th Batch Of Animal Health Workers To Combat Zoonotic Diseases

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has inducted a fifth cohorts of frontline animal health workers who have received months of In-Service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (ISAVET) to work toward improving animal health security, surveillance and reporting.

At the induction ceremony in Abuja, national coordinator of the ISAVET programme, Prof Hannatu Lombin said that the training aimed to enhance the capacity of frontline veterinarians in epidemiology surveillance, field investigation, professional ethics and emergency preparedness and response to zoonotic diseases.

With this development, she said, Nigeria now boost of 156 trained frontline veterinarians equip with the latest skills in animal health practices to address contemporary challenges in managing transboundary animal health.

“We are gradually building a critical mass of frontline veterinarians that are currently changing the narratives of disease surveillance in Nigeria, worthy of note, most members of the 5th cohorts are private veterinarians, which is a first of its kind and it is partly sponsored by the Department of Veterinary and Pest Control Services through the REDISSE project”, she said.

ECTAD country team lead, Otto Vianney Muhinda who represented FAO country representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, ad interim, Koffy Dominique Kouacou, urged the graduands to apply their skills and knowledge to protect the health of animals and humans.

He also thanked the government and the partners for their support and cooperation in implementing the programme, which he said was a key component of the FAO’s One Health approach to address the interlinked challenges of human, animal and environmental health.