Recent Advances in Emergency Animal Diseases Annual Symposium

On 11–12 October 2023, AVA was represented at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) annual symposium “Recent Advances in Emergency Animal Diseases”. 

The agenda for this event featured speakers from the ACDP, academia, industry and government.

Day one topics covered the latest information on the current Emergency Animal Disease (EAD) threats to Australia, including comprehensive sessions on lumpy skin disease, Japanese encephalitis and avian influenza.

Day two focussed on regional preparedness and surveillance for EADs, and finished with a dedicated session on One Health, including rabies, Q Fever, and One Health applications in indigenous communities.

ACDP (formerly the Australian Animal Health Laboratory – AAHL) is based in East Geelong and is CSIRO’s national centre for emergency disease testing and reference laboratory. ACDP plays an integral role in investigating exotic and emergency disease incidents and provides diagnostic testing services for surveillance programs such as the National Arbovirus Monitoring Program (NAMP), the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy (NAQS) and the National Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) Surveillance Program.

The annual EAD Symposium is always exceptionally well organised and attended and provides cutting-edge information directly from our national experts. This year was the first held face-to-face since 2019, due to COVID. Everyone was very pleased to attend in-person once again, with a full-house of veterinarians hailing from government departments, universities and private veterinary practice.

For those interested in emergency and emerging diseases, this is the highlight of the scientific calendar for the year. AVA will send out notification ahead of next year’s event – we encourage any of you who are able to come along!