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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of faster and smarter disease early warning, preparedness and response. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is launching a new Global Animal Disease
Information System, EMPRES-i+ to answer this need through a One Health approach, linking the health of animals, humans and the environment.
Timely and reliable disease information enhances early action on animal and zoonotic diseases which can cross borders and spread around the world in a matter of days. The disease information collected and analyzed by the new EMPRES-i+
and its associated tool the Event Mobile Application-EMA-I, will improve decision support to better prevent and respond to food and health security threats.
New features of EMPRES-i+
EMPRES-i+ is a web-based secure information system that supports countries and the global community through regional and global disease information and analysis.
Its previous version, EMPRES-i, was first released in 2004 in response to a growing demand for a global system for animal health information gathering and sharing. Since then, it has been used by 100s of stakeholders, from local to
global communities and development partners, to better monitor and forecast animal disease outbreaks.
The upgraded EMPRES-i+ platform’s features include:
(i)
cloud-based platform with ability to link to other data platforms from public
health, animal health, and environmental sectors. This will help users to easily access data from other sectors, and use information they need for further analysis.
(ii)
advanced data analytics for users to easily identify disease events and trends. This will also help countries to plan their disease control approaches and target interventions.
(iii)
forecasting and early warning functions to allow countries to monitor disease spreading and the risk of new outbreaks. From this function, countries will be able to prepare
for possible disease outbreaks early in advance.
One Health solidarity
The launch will include statements by:
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QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
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Maria-Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General
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Maximo Torero Cullen, FAO Chief Economist
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Keith Sumption, FAO Chief Veterinary Officer
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FAO’s long-standing One Health partners will share their experience and explore wider implementation of EMPRES-i+ around the globe.
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