National Wildlife Disease Program (NWDP)

International Collaboration-
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)

Participants at a workshop at Bahia Samborombon Wetland Reserve, Argentina set up a cannon net to capture wild birds for testing. Setting mist nets for shore bird capture, Argentina.

NWDP is committed to upholding The President's National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza, including its component of International Collaboration. NWDP supports surveillance to detect avian influenza and provides assistance to build capacity within foreign countries.

Since its inception, NWDP has collaborated with countries in The Americas, Asia and Europe by hosting bird capture and surveillance workshops, market surveys, and/or providing surveillance support.

International collaborative activities are designed to build capacity to conduct wildlife disease surveillance. Some key activities include:

Infrastructure development, such as providing or subsidizing diagnostic instruments and laboratory reagents.
Temporary duty assignments of U.S. diagnostic experts to train counterparts in-country.
Assistance to bring foreign diagnosticians to U.S. laboratories for training.
Workshops to inform and train government scientists and managers about trans boundary wildlife disease surveillance issues such as HPAI.
Workshops to provide hands-on experience in wildlife disease surveillance techniques.
Regional conferences to facilitate cooperation and collaboration on trans boundary wildlife disease surveillance issues such as HPAI.

NWDP biologist Janean Romines teaches a Chinese workshop participant to collect environmental samples.

Suiting up for a necropsy training in Brazil. From left: Leonardo Vianna Mohr, Director of Wildlife and Fisheries Resources, Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, Brasilia, Brazil; Alessandra Nava, Coordinator of Conservation Medicine, Institute for Ecological Research, Sao Paulo, Brazil; and unidentified workshop participant.

NWDP has collaborated in disease surveillance, training workshops, regional conferences and infrastructure development (such as diagnostic laboratories) with the following countries:

The Americas	Asia	Europe
Argentina Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Peru Uruguay Venezuela	Bangladesh Cambodia China Indonesia Lao PDR Malaysia Philippines Thailand Viet Nam	Denmark Greenland Russia

Map of international surveillance locations (116 KB)

Partners of NWDP include governmental agencies and universities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international governmental organizations. Some examples include*:

Governmental Agencies & Universities	Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)	International Governmental Organizations
Environment Canada University of Saskatchewan, Canada Danish National Veterinary Institute Federal Centre for Animal Health (Russia) Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Institute of Zoology Conservation Medicine Laboratory, Mexico Department of Animal Health, Viet Nam	Wildlife Conservation Society Wildlife Trust Alliance Ducks Unlimited- Mexico Calgary Zoological Society Wildlife Foundation of Argentina	Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Office International des Epizooties (OIE) World Health Organization (WHO)

*This is a partial list

By collaborating with other countries around the world, NWDP is able to better track the potential spread of HPAI on a global scale, recognizing threats to the health of human, domestic animal and wildlife populations, both in the US and abroad, while forging strong cooperative relationships with other countries.

Project Manager:
Dale Nolte, PhD
Dale.L.Nolte@aphis.usda.gov
(970)266-6049
USDA/APHIS/WS
4101 Laporte Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80521