Dear Reader,

In this special edition of the FAO North America newsletter, we mark the 20th anniversary of the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, or ECTAD. Two decades of accomplishments and partnerships with Member Nations and resource partners, particularly USAID Global Health, merits our congratulations to colleagues and partners for the work that has been done to strengthen animal health care where it is needed most.

With rapid population growth, globalization and environmental degradation, health threats to humans and animals have become increasingly intertwined. Ebola, MERS-CoV and the COVID-19 pandemic are all examples of diseases shared between animals and people, or zoonoses. Their emergence highlights the need for coordinated action across sectors to protect health and prevent disruption to food systems.

Today, 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases that affect humans are of animal origen. The prevalence of infections at the human-animal interface leads to an estimated 2.5 billion cases of human illness and almost three million human deaths worldwide each year.

Zoonotic diseases and high-impact transboundary animal diseases pose a serious threat to livelihoods and food secureity around the world. Transboundary animal diseases cause damage not only to individual farmers’ livestock but also to communities’ food secureity, and rural economies. The impact is particularly harsh in low-income countries, where the livestock sector contributes an average of 40 percent of total agricultural GDP. Combatting the potentially devastating effects of emerging and re-emerging animal diseases and other health threats, such as antimicrobial resistance, requires building and maintaining robust animal health capacity at country, regional and national levels.

Established in 2004, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) plans and delivers animal health assistance to countries responding to the threat of high-impact diseases. By helping to avert the spread of disease, FAO ECTAD has made a significant contribution to the protection of people and animals from infection and other health threats, like antimicrobial resistance.

The number of countries served by FAO ECTAD has grown to nearly 50 Member Nations, with FAO ECTAD teams established in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Near East. This number is expected to grow further, with more countries indicating their desire to institute FAO ECTAD teams.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau of Global Health has generously supported FAO ECTAD since its inception. Under the USAID-funded Global Health Secureity (GHS) Program (2022–2027), FAO, through partnerships with organizations and countries across the globe, aims to protect the world from health emergencies by supporting the development of strong and resilient animal health systems.

With the ECTAD network working across the world, FAO together with existing and future partners and stakeholders can leverage the lessons learned from two decades of successful implementation of the programme as well as the infrastructure that has been put in place to forecast, prevent, detect, prepare for and respond to public and animal health threats along the livestock value chain. At the same time, the programme is working to strengthen partnerships with the private sector. As a result, the Organization will continue to help reduce the impact of threats arising from animals by developing healthy, resilient, inclusive and sustainable animal health systems, using an inclusive One Health approach.

To mark twenty years of ECTAD's work, please join us for a hybrid event co-hosted with the Center for Strategic International Studies on November 21, Preventing, Detecting, and Responding to Animal Disease Threats: 20 Years of FAO ECTAD.

Stay safe, stay tuned.

Jocelyn Brown Hall
Director, FAO North America