Through a collaboration with Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture, CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) is supporting Indonesia’s Disease Investigation Centre Wates (DIC Wates) to strengthen its national role in identifying and characterising avian influenza outbreaks across Indonesia. This is supporting the centre to track avian influenza virus evolution and monitor the effectiveness of nationally licensed poultry vaccines as well as progress towards becoming a WOAH reference laboratory for avian influenza.
Project activities include the project team employing a twinning approach to train and mentor the centre’s mid- and senior-level staff in international standards, biorisk management, sequencing and auditing. The project team is also supporting staff to produce, validate and test proficiency panels and diagnostic reagents.
The knowledge and skilled transferred through this collaboration will be used to build Indonesia’s laboratory capacities in controlling zoonotic avian influenzas and emerging infectious disease threats – helping to bolster human and animal health security in the region.
