The Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance Becomes an FAO Reference Center for Veterinary Epidemiology

The Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance Becomes an FAO Reference Center for Veterinary Epidemiology

The Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance (CADMS) led by Dr. Beatriz Martínez López was formally recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations as an FAO Reference Center for Veterinary Epidemiology in May 2018. In a letter from Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General of FAO, CADMS was notified that its mandate, activities and competencies had attained the scientific, technical and policy standing to be designated as an FAO Reference Center. CADMS has demonstrated its commitment to strengthen capacity development in epidemiology and has extensive experience and prior collaborations with FAO. 

As a designated FAO Reference Center, CADMS will continue to provide independent technical/scientific advice on notable issues of relevance to FAO and join in the large range of scientific, technical and economic expertise upon which FAO draws for collaboration. CADMS will inform FAO of changes in epidemiologic situations of animal diseases and to any risks that are identified to be associated with animal diseases using state-of-art risk mapping technologies such as those developed within the Disease BioPortal (http://bioportal.ucdavis.edu). Center team members will support risk assessment research and training activities and provide advice on appropriate disease surveillance methods as well as contribute to capacity building programs in FAO member developing countries.

“Recognition of CADMS and our team as an FAO Reference Center is both gratifying and significant to our mission,” said Director Martínez López. “Our primary objective is to develop methods to rapidly detect and predict the risk of introduction and spread as well as support the risk-based, more cost-effective, prevention, control and eradication of endemic, emerging and re-emerging animal diseases throughout the world.  As an FAO Center, our team will make even greater impacts on global health, expand our animal health training and capacity building activities and provide collaborators with essential information to inform disease control strategies.”