Guidelines for the development of the Regional Plan of Action of the Americas Region under the Wildlife Health Framework

Purpose:

‘protect wildlife health worldwide to achieve One Health’.

General Objective:

Anticipate, reduce, and manage the risk of spillover events between wildlife, livestock, and humans at the animal/human/environment interface.

To meet this general objective, two intermediate objectives:

1. improve the ability of WOAH Members to manage the risk of pathogen emergence in wildlife and transmission at the human-animal-ecosystem interface, whilst taking into account the protection of wildlife.
2. Support WOAH Members to improve surveillance systems, early detection, notification, and management of wildlife diseases, through good animal health and welfare practices in the management of wildlife trade and use.

Specific Objectives:

1. Vamp the Regional Network for Wildlife NFP.
2. Improve the knowledge of wildlife distribution in the Americas Region.
3. Encourage Members to improve existing disease surveillance systems & Support Members in the improvement of detection systems for preventing future “spill-over events”.
4. Support countries implementation of Standards and Guidelines on Wildlife Trade.

Actions to achieve the Specific Objectives:

1. Organising meetings and workshops.
2. Wildlife species distribution mapping – animal migrations.
3. Mapping the existing Stakeholders in the Region.
4. Encourage the creation of PPPs.
5. Listing priority diseases for the Americas.
6. Elaborating Case definitions.
7. Mapping laboratories.
8. Improving laboratory capacity.
9. Promoting the creation of collaborating Centres & Reference laboratories in Central and South America.
10. Risk Analysis – approach by disease/ by species.
11. Epidemiological surveillance.
12. Training in diagnostics, wildlife laboratory testing, sample collection and referral.
13. Dissemination of WOAH’s standards, Guidelines and Manuals.
14. Legislation assessment at national level.
15. Scoping Wildlife health and related environmental factors in the PVS pathway (HQ consultancy for reference).
16. Epidemiological Surveillance in Wet Markets.

This guidelines are in line with Wildlife Health Framework.