Emergency animal diseases - updated AVA resources

(Image: Lumpy skin disease lesions in a cow overseas. Photo credit: Michael Patching)

Emergency animal diseases (EAD) are always something to be on the watch for. An outbreak of an EAD in Australia could cause significant harm, affecting the health of animals, humans and the environment.

The AVA has updated its emergency animal disease resources to include a range of emergency animal diseases of significant concern to Australia. These include:

• Highly pathogenic avian influenza (new resource)
• African swine fever (new resource)
• Ehrlichia
• Lumpy skin disease
• Foot and mouth disease
• Canine monocytic ehrlichiosis
• Japanese encephalitis virus

Being prepared to undertake disease investigations is an important part of a veterinarian’s role. These are some excellent resources to assist you:

• Emergency animal diseases field guide for Australian veterinarians
• Emergency animal diseases glovebox guide for veterinarians 
• Field veterinary epidemiology online training

If you would like to know more on how a response would be undertaken, or would like more information on specific EAD’s, or assistance around biosecurity, a range of online training options for veterinary teams are available including:

• The Emergency Animal Disease Foundation courses - found at Animal Health Australia 
• Foot-and-mouth disease online training for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals 
• VETLEARN - Veterinarians, Hobby Farmers and Backyard Livestock. This online course is designed to help veterinarians build their business and improve biosecurity outcomes with smallholders, resulting in early detection of an EAD. (2 structured CPD or VETED points). 

These pages are regularly updated, so save them in your browser to access the handy links.