Epidemiology Value Chain Platform

Modifications of facilities and/or practises to lower disease risk offers cost-effective options for disease prevention programmes at animal gathering points along the value chains, such as markets, abattoirs, and border points. Such interventions can be strengthened through the use of profiling/characterization in order to focus resources more effectively.  Understanding the risks of avian influenzas (AI) in market settings and targeting disease prevention and control to reduce the risk of spillover to humans has been instrumental in determining the role live bird markets (LBM) play in promoting the emergence of the disease and acting as a reservoir for the virus in both developed and developing countries. However, as has been shown recently with influenza A (H7N9), even with strict prevention and control measures in place, LBM are prone to incursions of AI. It is therefore fundamental that along with prevention capabilities through facility upgrades, national veterinary services are equipped with greater proficiency in surveillance so that they are able to detect animal diseases at epidemiologically linked locations earlier, more efficiently, and with the potential to forecast disease events at connected nodes along the value chain through enhanced knowledge of animal movement flows and patterns. Furthermore, preventative surveillance of transmissible animal diseases at these locations through risk-based interventions is an efficient method of disease detection that presents economic benefits in comparison to the cost of control or eradication efforts.