USAID Supports Avian Influenza Training for Veterinarians

Friday, March 13, 2009

HANOI, March 13, 2009 – Fifty Vietnamese veterinarians working in regional and provincial government offices will be trained this year under a new program to enhance their ability to effectively control, detect, and respond to outbreaks of avian influenza.   The Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training Program (AVET), which is supported by the U.S. government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.N. Joint Program in Vietnam, will provide the veterinarians with three months of theoretical and practical instruction to increase their skills.

With technical support from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Vietnam Avian Influenza Program, and the Department of Animal Health (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), AVET will equip field veterinarians in government service with skills in disease surveillance, control and prevention, and outbreak investigations and response. Following classroom instruction at the AVET Training Center, the veterinarians, joined by their mentors, will apply what they learned in investigating outbreaks, and managing surveillance systems and disease control programs in their regions and provinces.

Vietnam is one of the countries most affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza caused by the H5N1 virus. Over the past four years, the country has suffered millions of dollars in economic losses due to H5N1 outbreaks in poultry. 

Although government leadership has been successful in significantly reducing the number of outbreaks, the virus continues to circulate in the country’s poultry population.  Avian influenza can be transmitted from animals to humans.  Experts are concerned that the virus could mutate into an influenza strain that is transmissible between humans, potentially launching a global influenza pandemic.  Since 2003, Vietnam has had 109 human H5N1 cases, resulting in 54 deaths.

According to Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, avian flu outbreaks have occurred in 11 provinces so far this year. 

Since 2005, USAID has provided $27.5 million for avian influenza prevention and control in Vietnam.

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