GCP/GLO/891/USA- Rinderpest Communication for livestock farmers in Viet Nam

Rinderpest is an acute, contagious disease that causes high morbidity and mortality in cattle, buffalo, yak and other wildlife species. Following the declaration of Global Freedom from Rinderpest in 2011, the Member States of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations including Viet Nam were mandated to take the necessary measures to maintain global freedom from rinderpest.

As advised by the Department of Animal Health (DAH), the latest rinderpest outbreak was reported in 1978 in Daklak province and the government stopped their vaccination service for the disease since early 1980s.
Although eradicated from nature, the rinderpest virus is still contained in various laboratories worldwide. The global rinderpest post-eradication strategy is to safeguard the global rinderpest freedom through awareness raising and destruction/sequestration of remaining stocks of rinderpest-virus containing material (RVCM). The FAO project GCP/GLO/891/USA - entitled "Global Rinderpest Post-Eradication Security: Phase II" that the Department of Animal Health (DAH) has agreed to implement in Viet Nam upon signing the FAO Government Cooperative Program agreement.
In the rinderpest post-eradication phase, the overall approach is to be based on Communication for Development (ComDev), a social process at different levels through participatory communication including listening, establishing trust, sharing knowledge and skills, building policies, debating and learning for sustained and meaningful change.

The ComDev objective is to ensure global rinderpest post-eradication security through communication and advocacy to strengthen awareness of the impacts of rinderpest re-emergence. FAO Viet Nam and DAH affirmed their support to roll out a communication strategy targeting livestock farmers as well as veterinarians and lab personnel