The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) began a workshop this week on diagnostic testing for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) for 24 foreign scientists.
The workshop, which is being held at the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, is the third in a series of train-the-trainers workshops on HPAI testing and diagnostics.
According to Ron DeHaven, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service administrator, the workshops are aimed at assisting “assist senior-level veterinarians and poultry disease experts from countries that either have discovered HPAI, or are at high risk for the disease”.
The participants are from 19 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burma, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Mozambique, Oman, Pakistan, Romania, Sudan, Taiwan, Uganda and Uruguay)
which have requested USDA technical assistance in the area.