Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) severely affects the productivity of livestock, disrupting regional and international trade in animals and animal products. The most significant impact of the disease in low and middle-income countries is losses in production, utility and income which together affect livelihoods and impact food security and nutrition of farmers.

The FMD roadmap meetings are organized under the umbrella of the FAO/OIE Global Framework for the progressive control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs), by its FMD Working Group, with the technical support from the European Commission for the control of FMD (EuFMD).

The current global restrictions related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic are challenging conventional approaches for the organization of international events including regional FMD roadmap meetings. The GF-TADs FMD Working Group is therefore organizing an innovative virtual format for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) FMD roadmap meeting.

Some SADC countries have been officially recognized by the OIE as having an FMD free status without vaccination, either in the entire country or in one or several zones within their territory. However, FMD outbreaks are still widely reported sporadically or endemically in several countries. During the meeting, closed sessions will be held to conduct Countries’ Interviews to review their PCP-FMD stage (based on their control activities, self-assessment tool and presentation outcomes).

To date, two FMD roadmap meetings for the SADC Members  have been organized (in 2012 and 2017 in which 11 of the 15 SADC Members attended). During the most recent meeting (final report available here), a Regional Advisory Group was elected for a three-year term consisting of CVOs/OIE Delegates (or their representatives) of Botswana (Chair), Zambia and Mauritius, and leaders of the SADC Laboratory Sub-Committee (Zimbabwe) and Epidemiology and Informatics Sub-Committee (Swaziland).

This meeting will composed of two phases: recorded preparatory phase and a live roadmap meeting. .

This virtual meeting, and all the related events, will be held under the GF-TADs umbrella, in collaboration with SADC Secretariat, operational support from the Virtual Learning Center in SADC, and technical support from the EuFMD.