Study Day and OIE Twinning on Brucellosis

On 3^rd December 2013, a study day for technical-scientific refresher training about the epidemiological situation of brucellosis in Italy was held at the CIFIV "Francesco Gramenzi" of the "IZS dell'Abruzzo e del Molise".

The event was organized by the National Reference Centre for Brucellosis of the IZSAM and offered the opportunity to present the disease from the point of view of infectious medicine, the results of the inter-laboratory circuits of 2012, and current research activities.

Stephen Weber from the Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health of the USDA (OIE Collaborating Centre for risk analysis, surveillance systems for animal health and epidemiological models) and five delegates of the National Veterinary Reference Center (NVRC) from Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan, were also present at theevent.

In fact, the kick-off meeting of the "Twinning OIE for Animal Brucellosis including diagnostic epidemiology with the objective to become an OIE reference laboratory for Brucellosis" started on the same day. This is a twinning project of the World Organisation for Animal Health on brucellosis involving the IZSAM, as an OIE Reference Laboratory for Brucellosis, and the National Veterinary Reference Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The twinning aims to improve the knowledge and skills of Kazakh staff to enable the NVRC to become OIE Reference Laboratory and provide scientific and technical support to other countries in Central Asia.