APCOVE will bring together 40 experts from veterinary schools across Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the Asia-Pacific to design open source, online training modules and case studies, that will be used to train veterinarians in core epidemiological skills. The modules and case studies will teach several of the World Organisation for Animal Health’s Critical Competencies of the Performance of Veterinary Services, building skills in outbreak investigation and response; surveillance and data analysis; risk assessment and disease control; one health and biosecurity and leadership and communication.

The Indo-Pacific region’s health security system, or its ability to avoid and contain infectious disease threats with the potential to cause social and economic harms on a national, regional or global scale, has many weaknesses in both human and animal health. In the last 20 years approximately two-thirds of all new or re-occurring infectious diseases affecting people have originally come from animals. These types of diseases are called zoonoses.

During both animal and human disease outbreaks, field epidemiologists (‘disease detectives’) are needed to help identify the source, trace and predict the spread and plan the best response. But there are insufficient field epidemiologists in many developing countries including in the Indo-Pacific region. There is also a lack of trained experts to help these countries implement their animal health plans.

The Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) is a high-level initiative for collective action to eliminate malaria across Asia and the Pacific by 2030.

Through a scholarship program, national regulatory authority staff will complete postgraduate level courses from the Graduate Certificate in Health Products Regulation program at Duke-National University of Singapore.

TB Alliance is a not-for-profit product development partnership (PDP) committed to R&D that is urgently needed for better tuberculosis treatments.