Summary
The Avian Influenza Emergency Preparation Course is a twelve-hour tutored online course that aims to prepare veterinarians to diagnose and investigate an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and to play an important role in emergency disease control measures.
The FAO Virtual Learning Centres together with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have tailored FAO’s online course, the “Avian Influenza Emergency Preparation Course” to the Canadian national situation. This online course will be delivered as a bilingual tutored online course in February 2023 to CFIA and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) veterinarians, private veterinarians, veterinary technicians and industry participants.
The course involves approximately twelve hours of study over a five-week period. The course opens and closes with live webinars (two in English, two in French), co-presented by experts from FAO and CFIA. Course participants will be supported in a bilingual online discussion forum, in which tutors answer questions from the course participants and pose a number of questions.
Target Audience
- Veterinarians and registered veterinary technicians / technologists who would be involved in a highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) diagnosis, investigation, and outbreak response.
- Industry personnel who may provide support during the emergency.
This program has been submitted (but is not yet approved) for 12 hours of continuing education credit in jurisdictions which recognize RACE approval.
Program Schedule
The course runs from February 21 – March 31, 2023. The modules:
- Introduction – Characteristics of the Virus and Global Impact
- Epidemiology – Transmission and Risk Factors
- Pathogenesis and Clinical Presentation
- Laboratory Diagnosis
- Prevention – Biosecurity
- Surveillance
- Outbreak Investigation
- Control
Click here for detailed course overview.
A collaborative effort
- Animal Health Emergency Management Project (AHEM)
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
- Virtual Learning Centres, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA)
- U.S. Department of Agriculture APHIS VS