From the UAE for a OIE twinning project

Zulaikha Al Hammadi and Mohamed Ali Abdulla Alhosani, coming from Food Control Authority, the Animal Health Centre for Diagnostic and Research (ADFCA) in Abu Dhabi, spent a long training time, concerning a five year OIE Twinning, between the Food Control Authority of the UAE and the OIE networks among the Istituti Zooprofilattici Sperimentali in Brescia (IZSLER) in Palermo (IZSS) and in Teramo (IZSAM ) - Italy.

Since 19 September till 14 October 2016 these two researchers, from UAE, attended the virology department at IZS of Abruzzo and Molise, training themselves on implementation of diagnostic techniques for the isolation and identification of viral agents: "Tissue culture techniques (virus isolation and identification) and animal module, egg embryo infection techniques".

The aim of this twinning project is to establish in Abu Dhabi, an OIE Collaborating Centre for epidemiological analysis and diagnosis in camel diseases. The shelter of this animal, from the risk of endemic and emerging infectious diseases, is an essential importance in those areas. In fact, the camels are very important, because they are strictly related to the support of the local population.

Many topics dealt with this training, both from theoretical and practical perspectives. Among these topics, this project provides for the development and standardization of the main agents, which are the reason camel disease. A particular reference had been looked at those diseases, listed on the OIE “Ad Hoc Group” report: (Smallpox, Bluetongue, Rift Valley Fever, Brucellosis, Pasteurellosis, Peste des petits ruminants, Rabies, Tuberculosis, West Nile Diseases and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection, (MERS-CoV) and vaccination techniques to oppose the main camel diseases (Smallpox, Bluetongue, Rift Valley Fever and Brucellosis).