The New Agriculturist reports today that ‘As the Middle East increases livestock imports from Africa, officials are meeting in Dubai to develop a strategy to prevent the spread of Rift Valley fever, without banning livestock imports from the Horn of Africa. . . .

‘To guide their responses to the disease, officials from the Middle East and Africa are being encouraged to use [a] “decision support tool”. Developed with assistance from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and FAO, the tool can be used to identify the sequence of events likely to occur as the risk of a disease outbreak increases. “This tool links early warning signs to control measures that can be implemented before animals or people begin falling ill,” explains Jeffrey Mariner, an epidemiologist at ILRI. “The new tool could reduce the impact of Rift Valley fever, and maybe even prevent some local outbreaks, and has the potential to prevent the spread of RVF through trade.”. . .

‘”The good news is that the impact of RVF can be mitigated with early action during an outbreak,” says Bernard Bett, an epidemiologist at ILRI, “but veterinary officers and decision-makers need to know what interventions to implement—and when—as the stages of an epidemic unfold.”‘

Read the whole article at New Agriculturist: Officials from Middle East and Africa meet to tackle Rift Valley fever, June 2011.