44TH GENERAL SESSION OF THE EUFMD COMMISSION
ONLINE 21-22-23 APRIL 2021
Standing Technical Committee Report Presenter: Stephan Zientara, Chairperson Standing Technical Committee (Appendix 12) Key Messages
1. The committee held six meetings – one of which was face-to-face in ANSES. 2. The main activity was the guidance for the Open Session 2020 with the theme “Livelihoods @risk in a FASTer world”. 3. This event included four virtual sessions in December 2020, four virtual workshops in January/February 2021 and a closure meeting in mid-February, and was attended by over 3 000 participants. 4. Other items covered by the Committee during the biennium were: FAST diseases control and management; Call for applied research; Vaccine pre-qualification system; EuFMD as risk information provider; Sub-committees activities and situations (SCBRM, SCSAR); Gaps, Priorities and opportunities emerging from COVID 19 situation; Opinion on serotype C in EU bank.
Summary Dr Zientara introduced the committee, which has six members from France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Six committee meetings were held during the first biennium, on 18 June 2019, 7 November 2019, 27 February 2020, 3 June 2020, 9 September 2020 and 4 February 2021. The main activities of the Committee were focused on the below items. FAST diseases control and management FAST diseases was a major change in the activities of the EuFMD and the Standing Technical Committee (STC) has given guidance in balancing the efforts made. Considering that up to 2019 the EuFMD supported multiple disease surveillance only in the Thrace region, the STC has assisted the team in identifying gaps that needed to be addressed in accordance with the new strategic approach. Integrated Risk-Based surveillance seems to be an area to which all the members of the STC can contribute. The STC has contributed to EuFMD modelling (looking into opportunities for its application for vector-borne diseases) as well as in establishing training priorities, anticipating whether such trainings should address specific diseases or rather address thematic items that can represent cross-cutting issues among different FAST diseases. Preparation of the Open Session 2021 The Open Session of the Standing Technical Committee of the European Commission for the Control of Footand-Mouth Disease is held every two years and has become the largest technical and scientific meeting on Footand-mouth Disease to be convened on a regular basis. The EuFMD has organized these meetings since the early 1970s, alternating a Closed Session with an Open Session for scientific exchange. Due to the travel restrictions related to Covid-19, the Open Session 2020 (OS20) was held in a virtual format and over four days in December (8, 10, 15, and 17). The online conferences were hosted in a virtual space (the EuFMD lighthouse) and the scope broadened to TADs similar to FMD, which remained the focus. Under the theme of “Livelihoods @ risk in a FASTer world”, 45 Keynote and oral presentations were delivered during four sessions:
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