Item 13.Technical Committees and their functions in the upcoming biennium

Item 13.Technical Committees and their functions in the upcoming biennium.

Proposal: Appendix 22

The Executive Secretary introduced this Item. Each Session of the Commission is able to decide upon the appropriate Committees needed to provide technical guidance to the Secretariat and the Standing Committee, and with the new “HOLD FAST” strategy, the range of expertise required would be significantly broader than in the past. The proposal for the selection of centres of expertise was made, and a list of centres of expertise in FAST diseases. On the latter, at the election of Officers and Committee members, the Technical Directors of the Institutes would be proposed, giving the opportunity for these centres to select the most appropriate expert within their team for the specific Committee meeting or issue under consideration. The proposal indicated both a categorisation of FAST diseases for which decisions on activities will need to be made, and support provided, and competences expected: - Category 1 : FMD, PPR, Capripoxviruses [criterion: all ruminant infections with similar risk factors to FMD and are currently present in multiple neighbourhood countries, and for which vaccination is an option]. - Category 2: Rift Valley Fever, Bovine Ephemeral Fever [criterion: ruminants are directly affected with major losses; schedule 1 surveillance for other FAST may provide a cost-efficient means to monitor risk or EW for these AND evidence for circulation /disease in neighbourhood countries AND vaccination is needed in response ]. - Category 3: Not included in the above since a) these are already well covered by GF-TADS SGE or for which co-ordination is well established at EU level: ASF, CSF, BT and AHS. For these, there may be a value and need to co-ordinate with others e.g. training resources, modelling impact. - Competences needed in the Standing Committee 1. Expertise in the epidemiology and laboratory diagnosis of schedule 1 or 2 FAST diseases and strong working connections with EU-RL or competent laboratories to support activities. 2. Expertise in potential vaccines for assessment of their potential use against FAST in Europe, and/or studies on the performance of vaccines against one or more FAST diseases. 3. Expertise in specialised disciplines that are considered critical for planning or response to FAST diseases, such as surveillance and control in wildlife.

Working arrangements and Frequency of meetings: The extent of annual input is not likely to be more than five working days. One or two face to face (F2F) meetings will be held each year, as needed to ensure a good level of co –ordination and understanding between members and the Secretariat (and its staff managing field activities). Online (virtual conferencing) meetings may also be used. The costs of the Committee meetings, and funding of applied research in support, will be budgeted within the framework of the support pledged by France (provided as Annex 1 to the proposal).

Conclusion

1. The President re-iterated the support pledged by France to the new Committee and the intention to establish a funding of applied actions and research. 2. There was no comments or objections on the proposal, which was therefore endorsed.