Workshop on Avian Influenza

Since September 2017, EFSA has been providing ongoing scientific and technical support to the European Commission and Member States (MSs) in the collection, collation, and analysis of epidemiological data relevant to the monitoring of avian influenza (AI) viruses in Europe and third countries. From 2019 onwards, EFSA will also be responsible for collecting, collating, and analysing the data gathered by MSs via their surveillance programmes in poultry and wild birds. To effectively deliver on these mandates, a close collaboration between EFSA and other stakeholders on AI is required. To that end, EFSA organized a workshop held in Parma during September 2018. The agenda of this workshop included two main topics for discussion: i) the optimization of the ongoing quarterly reports produced by EFSA on AI monitoring, and ii) the type of data to be reported to EFSA from 2019 onwards on the AI surveillance activities carried out by MSs. Two questionnaires, one related to the monitoring reports and a second related to the type of data held by MSs (and the ease of access of these data), were distributed among MS representatives before and during the workshop respectively. In order to guide the discussions, a number of presentations by EFSA staff, Standing Working Group members on AI and MS representatives, among others, were organized. A summary of the content of the presentations, the feedback provided by MS representatives via the questionnaires, and the exchange of ideas between EFSA and the participants are presented in this event report.