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Mid-Year 2006 Message from AVIS CollegeInternational Action against High Impact Diseases In the AVIS College 2006 New Year Message we referred to 2006 as the year of uncertainty with respect to infectious animal diseases. During the first half of the year we have witnessed several international studies and plans of actions evolve to address this uncertainty. They raise the hope that international concern about infectious diseases of animals may translate into effective measures for their containment and prevention of spread. The
Another
sign of hope came from the
The Foresight project was conducted over a two year period (2004-2006). It focused on the central theme of Infectious Diseases: preparing for the future. A key objective was to determine how science and technology can improve global capability to detect, identify and monitor infectious diseases, in order to better manage the risks attendant on them. The study
team examined infectious diseases from a global perspective, with
special emphasis on the
A formal
Report was presented at a conference, held at the Royal Society,
The Report may be accessed at www.foresight.gov.uk. It is in five parts:
It is underpinned by 97 papers arising from commissioned researches and reviews. The Report highlights four “User Challenges” for the emerging technologies, namely:
In the context of these challenges, the Report lays out a range of key choices for policy makers both in terms of technology developments and also the environment and governing ethics for their application. It shows how future technologies for the detection, identification and monitoring of infectious diseases converge, irrespective of end use, whether for human, animal or plant diseases. It highlights the importance of policy strategies that target controlling infectious diseases at their source whether geographically, which means predominantly in developing countries, or in terms of species, which, for the emerging human diseases, means animals. The Report also highlights the likely disease risk trends in relation to climate change, societal attitudes and governance. G8 Communiqué One outcome of the Foresight study has been a joint submission by the UK Office of Science and Innovation, FAO and OIE to the Russian Presidency of the G8 that culminated in a G8 communiqué on infectious diseases http://en.g8russia.ru/docs/10.html, with a far clearer commitment to the issue than hitherto. Operational Progress At the operational level, we have witnessed such new developments
as the launching of the Joint FAO-OIE-WHO Global Early Warning and
Response System for Transboundary Animal Diseases and Zoonoses and
the FAO/OIE Global Crisis Management Centre at FAO Headquarters
in
Knowledge Management and Knowledge Transfer: The AVIS Contribution A vital requirement for effective management of the risk of infectious diseases will be knowledge management and knowledge transfer. AVIS programs and tools are intended to make a contribution in this role.
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