From October 15-16, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will host a two-day workshop in Kampala, Uganda to discuss the development and implementation of a sustainable ISAVET (In Service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training) program in Africa. The aims of the workshop are 1) to gain consensus among partners concerning support for the implementation of ISAVET and 2) to establish a functional network of animal health and public health trainers, instructors and mentors to support the program.

This event coincides with the launch of the first regional ISAVET Frontline program in Uganda. The new program will train veterinarians from Uganda and other countries in the region. The program will serve as the launching point for a new case study and learning module, “Practical Ethics for Veterinarians,” developed collaboratively by TEPHINET, the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases at Texas A&M University, and the Focus Area for Compassion and Ethics (FACE) within the Task Force for Global Health. TEPHINET will make the case study and module available on its website.

Dr. Angela Hilmers, senior associate director for science with TEPHINET, is participating on a technical committee convened by FAO to design the standard curriculum and technical guidelines for Frontline, intermediate and advanced levels of the training. In addition, TEPHINET is providing technical input on the definition of measurement outcomes for a monitoring and evaluation framework being developed by Texas A&M and FAO.