Innovative Strategies for Strengthening Regional Animal Health Networks

Epidemiosurveillance networks face numerous challenges: diversity of diseases, farming practices and environment; language barriers; heterogeneity of socioeconomic development levels, health infrastructure and laboratory and epidemiology capacities; disparate veterinary legislation and health policies; and an increasing lack of human and funding resources. These factors represent important constraints for the establishment of regional animal health networks, especially in the context of the emergence/re-emergence of diseases due to globalisation of trade, movement intensification (animals, humans, products) and environmental changes. As regional animal health networks generally aim to contribute to the harmonisation and reinforcement of animal disease surveillance and control activities in the countries of a region, these factors even challenge this objective.