87th Executive Committee meeting of the EuFMD

Item5: 2.1 West Eurasia: progress in Turkey and Georgia

Author: M McLaws

86ExCom-Lyons 17-18 October 2013

Overview

Objective: To reduce the impact of FMD in Turkey and Georgia and to reduce the risk posed by FMD in the region to all EuFMD Member states.

Outputs:

1. Risk based control programmes adopted and implemented in TURKEY

2. Risk based control programmes adopted and implemented in GEORGIA

3. Improved information system for regional risk managers which supports the West Eurasia Roadmap countries.

ExCom87

Technical assistence

36%

In country workshops

48%

Contracts 3%

Training 8%

Field related

5%

€ 298,100

Agreed by ExCom 86

-28% spent

Progress in Turkey: 1

Risk-based strategic plan:

• Written, presented to the government for approval, and has been given general budgetary support.

• Work is ongoing to develop the plan for implementation and monitoring of the strategy.

• Need for defined budget and timeline

ExCom87

Appendices

TURKEY -

RISK-BASED STRATEGIC PLAN

FOR

CONTROL OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE

Version <1.0>

08/20/2013

Progress in Turkey: 2

•3 persons nominated to unit from Animal Health department

• Veterinarians, no background in epidemiology

• Expert missions to outline roles and responsibilities, tasks required to monitor the RBSP and to define

training needs. (Oct and Nov 2013)

•Unit does not yet have formal status and members not full-time

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Establishment of epidemiology and monitoring unit

Progress in Turkey: 3 Implementation of epidemiology and monitoring unit:

• Unit members are being trained in descriptive epidemiology epi software

• Centred on production of monthly report: clinical reports, laboratory results, vaccination

• Basic report has been produced for January during CB mission, not yet for February • Presented to Dr. Yazicioglu

• Unit has weekly contact with S. Aktas • Missions in Jan and Feb, follow-up planned in April

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Turkey outbreak data

Progress in Turkey: 4

Targeted research studies:

1. Collaboration with University of Warwick in development of disease spread model

– Will be first model of FMD in an endemic country

– Useful to examine control options, input into economic model

– Target completion end 2014, monthly reports chart progress

2. Input in design and analysis of serosurvey ExCom87

SCREEN SHOTS OF MODEL

Issues for Executive Committee Attention: Turkey

1. Urgent need for official acknowledgment of M&E unit and official appointment of its staff members.

– Without this official position, appointed staff members cannot prioritize work on M&E activities, but have to comply with their current position and very limited time for additional duties. • Eg production of monthly report not yet repeated, this would be

informative to the Thrace region model for risk calculation

– In the next mission, C. Bartels hopes to meet with Dr. Erol Irfan and Dr. Nahit Yazicioglu to discuss this issue • Dr. Yazicioglu has verbally expressed his support for the official

creation of the unit

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2. Turkvet:

• There is a wealth of data stored in TurkVet

• accessible for unit through routine reports , often not in a form useful for analysis, (esp for monitoring vaccination)

• EuFMD recommends to include a Turkvet database expert as an additional M&E staff member

•There are also concerns regarding data quality,

• issue will become clearer and should improve as data are used for reporting and decision making

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Issues for Executive Committee Attention: Turkey

Turkey: Priorities for next 6 months

• Continue to work with the monitoring and epidemiology unit:

• Develop a detailed monthly plan for training

• Produce monthly reports on FMD surveillance and control, with special attention to monitoring of the spring vaccination campaign which will include a booster vaccination in some areas.

• Training: next mission planned April 2014 (Bartels)

• Participation of Unit members in Real-time training course in Erzurum in June

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Progress in Georgia: 1

Assist with development of risk-based strategic plan:

•working group appointed within the Georgian VS for RBSP

•work is ongoing to develop a clear link between the risks identified and activities planned.

•Missions in Aug 2013 and February 2014

•Aim is to have prepared ahead of W. Eurasia Roadmap meeting in Astana

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Progress in Georgia: 2

EuFMD involvement in Task Force on Disease Surveillance:

• EuFMD invited to participate in Task Force that has been set up under the National Animal Health Plan steering committee –

• teleconference planned to focus on FMD on 11 April.

• This has come about with input from Colorado State University (Debby Reynolds )

Issues for Executive Committee Attention:

1. RBSP development is behind schedule, Georgian working group says that they do not have enough time to work on it due to other duties

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Georgia: Priorities for next 6 months

• Raise the profile of FMD within the 2014 National Action plan, through collaboration with Colorado State University and inclusion in the animal disease task force

• Finalise RBSP and work with VS to implement a system of monitoring key indicators

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Progress in West Eurasia Region – West Eurasia Database:

• data on vaccination and outbreaks input monthly

• National Consultants in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

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Issues for Executive Committee Attention:

West Eurasia Region

1. Need for further development of the Empres-i database: • to promote sharing of information in the region

• Options to improve this are being explored through collaboration with FAZD.

2. Less known about the FMD situation in Iran • Following the completion of the EuFMD cooperative project

• Important for threats to the region and Turkey in particular.

• Informal reports of ‘more outbreaks’, samples sent to WRL in Feb and results pending

3. There is a need to develop a system that promotes regular communication between WELNet laboratories.

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W. Eurasia Region: Priorities for next 6 months

– W. Eurasia Roadmap meeting

• Astana April 23-24.

• EuFMD will assist GF-TADs FMD Working Group with PCP Stage Assessment as well as the evaluation of national FMD control plans.

• EuFMD is supporting participants from Georgia and Turkey, as well as the epidemiology network leader (N. Rasouli from Iran).

• Opportunity to revitalise WelNet, Epi Network

– Real-time training for Russian speaking countries to be held in Erzurum in June (Georgia and neighbours)

• Turkish participants included ExCom87