Impact of COVID-19 on the delivery of veterinary services and animal disease reporting

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the lives of individuals, communities, and societies around the world, including those working in the animal health sector. To further examine the impact of COVID-19 on the activities of animal health workers and their ability to report animal disease, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Emergency Management Centre for Animal Health (EMC-AH) and Emergency Prevention System for Animal Health (EMPRES-AH) conducted surveys to collect and analyze data on the topic. To do so, EMPRES-AH designed a survey using the Event Mobile Application (EMA-i) tool, which was developed by FAO to support veterinary services in real-time disease reporting, whereas EMC-AH developed a specific survey for veterinary services that was circulated through national Chief Veterinarian Officers (CVOs) with support from FAO regional offices. This brief presents a breakdown of both surveys, the methodology behind them and a summary of the feedback.