Regional European Training Course on “The Early and Rapid Molecular Diagnosis of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza” held in Vladimir, Russian Federation, from 15 – 26 September 2008

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) subtype H5N1 re-emerged in 2003 in Asia and from there spread rapidly to Europe and Africa. The H5N1 avian influenza subtype holds a potential human pandemic risk since; it is a highly infectious and dynamically evolving disease that spreads rapidly and widely across countries and continents due to the migration routes of carrier avian species, especially water and predator birds; it is zoonotic in nature causing a high rate of mortality in both birds and humans (from the reported 385 human cases, 245 resulted in fatalities, i.e. a mortality rate of about 65%); it threatens national, regional and international trade on poultry and poultry products as a consequence of quarantine regulations; it threatens food security and the livelihood of many millions of poor farmers; the control of it is beyond the scope and resources of a single country or region.

The IAEA, and FAO through its EMPRES programme, have assisted Members States by providing information (laboratory infrastructure, equipment, reagent and consumable needs), diagnostic laboratory guidelines, standard operating procedures for diagnostic tests and training on the use of vaccines and appropriate diagnostic tests. The technical based intervention by the IAEA has prepared Member States to react to disease events in a timely manner. This action has however, to be followed-up and indeed expanded. To control transboundary infectious diseases effectively (case in point avian influenza) the early, rapid, sensitive and specific detection of a harmful introduction is critical as this impacts on the speed of implementation of control measures such as movement and trade restrictions, the possible implementation of a ring vaccination programme and quarantine/stamping-out/culling strategies in infected areas.

Unfortunately, inadequate capacity in many countries is the principal limiting factor for implementing an effective control or even eradicating policy and therefore the building up (or the enhancement of an existing capability) is critical and calls for a consolidation of international effort. To this effect, the IAEA and FAO through the Joint FAO/IAEA Division and EMPRES Programme, organized the first interregional training course on the “Rapid Diagnosis of Avian Influenza” at the OIE Collaborating Centre for the application of Molecular Techniques and ELISA in the diagnosis of Animal Diseases at Agency’s Seibersdorf laboratories from 20 Nov to 1 Dec, 2006. This was followed by the African Regional training course on “Molecular Techniques for the Diagnosis of Highly Avian Influenza” in Cairo, Egypt, 26 August to 6 September 2007 and the Australasia Regional training course on “Early and rapid diagnosis of avian influenza” in Geelong, Australia, 10 to 21 November 2007. It is hoped that this European Regional training course in the Russian Federation, will be followed by a follow-up European Regional training course (March 2009, Bulgaria) and a Latin America Regional training course (October 2009, Colombia).

The content of the course was aimed at enhancing trainees’ knowledge on the use of highly specific and rapid molecular techniques for the diagnosis, identification and characterization of HPAI viruses. The course focused on the RNA purification and cDNA transcription of the viral RNA, the nucleic acid amplification approaches (both classical [PCR] and real-time or quantitative PCR [Realtime-PCR and QPCR]), and gene sequencing for unequivocally identification, differentiation (H5/H7/H9 and N1/N3/N9), and characterization of HPAI viruses with special emphasis on the zoonotic sub-type H5N1. Trainees also received quality management and PCR laboratory set-up guidelines, sampling frame guidelines, procedures for submitting samples to OIE/FAO reference laboratories, and they were updated on the epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza. They were furthermore, informed of the different activities of not only FAO and IAEA (on the control of important transboundary animal diseases and particularly avian influenza), but also that of WHO and OIE. Particular emphasis was made of OFFLU, the OIE-FAO Network on Avian Influenza that has the mandate to:

The design of the course facilitated the transfer of molecular diagnostic approaches and techniques to developing country diagnosticians to enable them to improve their skills, laboratory capabilities and control strategies at all levels from basic to complicated platforms. The topics covered and discussed included an overview of the methods used in molecular diagnostic analysis with theoretical lectures supported by practical demonstrations and hands-on experience of appropriate techniques; instructions on application of relevant guidelines and quality assurance systems (ISO 17025 and FAO/IAEA quality standards and guidelines); molecular diagnostic laboratory accreditation, control strategies and related legislation topics. Several interviews were held with local and regional newspapers to explain the purpose, background and planned outputs of the European regional training course.