United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Colorado State University, Ministry of Agriculture Republic of Indonesia, Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (AVEPM) and Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies (CIVAS) held a series (6 sessions) of Avian Influenza Epidemiology Training Workshop in Indonesia.

The training workshop was designed to demonstrate to animal health staff members the role of international regulations and veterinary epidemiology in national animal health programs and the protection of human and animal populations from diseases. Beside that, the workshop was also to prepare animal health government and private officers and veterinarians in conducting animal disease investigation which includes collection of samples, probing potential sources of disease introduction, collecting records and data that are relevant to disease investigation, and use of the appropriate preventive and control measures.

The training workshop was conducted in ten days that comprised of six days of didactic classroom instruction and four days of table-top and field outbreak simulations. These training workshops were conducted in Tangerang, Medan, Surabaya, Bali and Makassar. The next to come is in Bandar Lampung and the national level training workshop which will be held in Jakarta.

The main participants for this training workshop were government and field or private veterinarians who are involved directly with poultry industry in the field. Additional participants from academia who are engaged in epidemiological activities, those involved in HPAI prevention, control and eradication activities were also invited to attend the training workshop and they came from the entire of Indonesia. The training workshop was initiated with some instructions given by M. D. Salman BVMS, MPVM, PhD, DACVPM, FACE (Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology) from Colorado State University, Ian A. Gardner, BVSc, MPVM, PhD (Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine and Epidemiology) from California University, Kristy Pabilonia, DVM, MS (Assistant Professor, Avian Disease Diagnostic Veterinarian) from Colorado State University, Manon Schuppers, MSc (Research Associate) from SAFOSO Switzerland, Barbara Corso, DVM, MS, DACVPM (Veterinary Epidemiologist) from USDA-APHIS and L. Mia Kim, DVM, MS, PhD (Research Associate) from USDA.

In the beginning of the training, the organizers gave pre tests to evaluate the participant’s basic knowledge and post tests to evaluate their progress. As a result, in the end of the training workshop, the distribution of post test answers showed that the participants have made progress in the understanding of AI epidemiology. To implement their knowledge in the field, just recently some of the participants has arranged action plans and will attend in the national level training workshop in Jakarta to present their action plan.

The expectation for the last workshop in Jakarta is to ensure the veterinarians implement the action plan and solve the AI problem in Indonesia. The implementation of the action plan will be covered by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).