A priority ? to prioritizise !

“To bite off more than you can chew”
This old saying has not lost its accuracy and can be applied in many fields including the health sector and monitoring of animal diseases.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa for most of the dubious privilege of hosting many bacterial diseases, viral, parasitic ... Our veterinary services are sometimes overwhelmed and discouraged by the magnitude of the task and the limited resources available ...

Furthermore, the external financing that would support control programs are often geared toward emergencies of the moment whose relevance is not always easy to understand for local producers and actors in the value chain.

The key word (a neologism or barbarism, but so handy!) to address this situation is: PRIORITIZE! Indeed, to allow the establishment of efficient and effective surveillance measure and control, we must learn to classify issues and focus on diseases that meet several criteria. Many organizations and technical institutions offer tools to help government to choose their priority programs. At meetings organized by the regional networks and most recently the launch of RESEPI and RESOCOM for Central Africa in Douala November 9 to 13, the FAO ECTAD unit in Bamako responsible for the animation and the secretariat of these networks, has fuelled a debate about this subject and invite you to find the synthesis of these ideas in the related article.

Prioritization or ranking of animal diseases through several criteria, and their classification into 4 categories (tactic, strategy, Emerging and zoonotic) allows the countries to develop realistic and achievable strategies for surveillance and control and the partners to easily identify areas of support well-argued and structured.

The response of FAO to your national priorities is included in the National Plans of Medium Term Priorities for Animal Health (AH-NMTPP).

The same thinking and same policy of prioritization may apply to reforms and improvements in veterinary services according to the needs and gaps identified by the PVS [1] OIE.