FAO Strengthens National Capacities in Data Management and Analysis for Animal Disease Surveillance and Reporting

The training, attended by the specialists from the veterinary services in Baghdad, Erbil, Duhok, Nineveh, Anbar, Wasit, Muthanna and Basra governorates, builds on the Event Mobile Application (EMA-i) workshop on “Disease notification and early warning reporting” and aims at developing skills in electronic data management, including verification and in-depth epidemiological analysis for a quality and rapid response to animal diseases outbreaks.

As surveillance data management and processing play an integral, increasing, and evolving role in supporting early warning of, and response to zoonotic disease events, it is important to improve data management and processing at the local level and integrate with the system at the national level. The training focused on enhancing veterinary services’ capacities in data collection, the application of different methods for data management and processing, techniques to troubleshoot (quality assurance / quality check) data coming in from the field, as well as processing, verification, exploration, and interpretation of data for decision-making.

The opening session was attended by the FAO Representative in Iraq and officials from relevant ministries. Dr. Salah El Hajj Hassan, FAO Representative in Iraq, underlined the importance of this joint collaboration with the MoA and MoAWR-KRI on data management and analysis for the early warning, which offers a better understanding and interpretation of animal health situation in the country for targeted disease control. He added: “This training aims at enhancing the skills of participants in data handling, verification, analysis, and interpretation and could contribute to reduce threats posed by emerging, transboundary and endemic pathogenic agents.”

The project “Improving Delivery of Animal Health Services and Disease Surveillance in Iraq” is a four-year initiative funded by DTRA that seeks to reduce the risk of international movement of animal diseases which introduction and spread could threaten livestock production, food security and nutrition,and the environment of Iraq. The above is expected to be achieved through strengthening the capacity of veterinary services to detect, diagnose and report highly pathogenic animal diseases and improve communication between central and local levels.