FAO strengthens Iraq’s animal disease surveillance and reporting system capacity through the Event Mobile Application (E MA-I) 21-23 February 2023

For the first time in Iraq and in collaboration with veterinary services, FAO introduced the Event Mobile Application (EMA-i) services. The first workshop was organized between 17 and 19 October 2022, in Baghdad, to facilitate real-time disease reporting and improve quantity and quality of notified disease reports, and to display disease situations, support decision-making, and prevent potential disease spread and early response to emergency cases.  Therefore, it is crucial to apply a system at the national level, to enhance veterinary services’ capacities in disease reporting from the field to decision-makers, ease and speed information sharing among stakeholders. FAO has developed EMA-i for data collection and to facilitate real-time disease reporting to support veterinary services’ capacities in disease surveillance and notification implemented in the field.

Dr.Salah El Hajj Hassan, FAO Representative in Iraq, underlined the importance of this collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (KRI) to improve early warning system and response to exceptional disease events, offer a better knowledge of animal health situation in regions and in the country for targeted disease control to protect and improve animal health of the livestock and livelihoods of farmers and livestock owners in the country and in the whole region. He added: “This training of trainers on the Event Mobile Application (EMA-i) aims at enhancing early warning systems and will ultimately contribute to the reduction of the food and health security threats arising from emerging, transboundary as well as endemic pathogens.”

The use of an electronic system for data collection by EMA-I application on smartphones, as well as data management, analysis, and reporting using Global Animal Disease Information System (EMPRES-i) will support veterinary services capacities in disease surveillance implemented in the field. Using the application will significantly increase the number of reports received from field veterinarians. Moreover, it will improve the coherence in sharing epidemiological information between neighbouring districts, regions, and national governments.

Following the requests raised after the first training held in Baghdad, Iraq, an updated version of the application was developed considering participants' notes and recommendations. A training, integrating these new requested functionalities, is conducted amongst trainees from the first session to strengthen their skills. Practical exercises were conducted to guide them in mastering the application. A particular focus was given to the web-based platform (EMPRES-i+) allowing the completion of disease report workflow ( for data management).

The activity involved 33 participants from the veterinary departments from   Al-Anbar, Al-Muthanna, Basrah, Duhok, Ninawa and Wasit in addition to Baghdad and Erbil central departments, and representatives from the Ministry of Health were invited to strengthen collaboration and exchange information related to zoonotic diseases as part of the One Health concept.