Complementing routine outbreak investigation (mostly focused on getting the suspicion (of FMD, PPR, HPAI, CSF) confirmed), advanced outbreak investigation is to promote in-depth studies on Impact, effectiveness of current control measures, and analysis of putative risk factors. Therefore, the sub-title of this training is "Evaluate current control measures and Test your assumptions".

This week, AHW worked with central and regional veterinary staff to define, design, implement, analyse and present four in-depth studies based on a field visit to a recent FMD outbreak near Ulaanbaatar. The most likely source of infection was a non-fenced municipality garbage dump where cows, even pigs were allowed to roam daily.

Trainees presented their findings on FMD virus circulation, impact, risk factors and vaccine effectiveness to more than 30 colleagues from the local municipality and the inspection agency. A lot of discussion on the effectiveness of control measures such as roadblocks, keeping children at home and vaccination.