Abstract:

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Platform on Animal Welfare for Europe was created in 2013 with the aim to support WOAH European Members to take action in line with WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code. In the 2nd Action Plan (2017-2019) of that Platform, WOAH identified the welfare of animals in natural disasters as a new priority topic. The WOAH Sub-Regional Representation in Brussels and the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZS-Teramo), as WOAH Collaborating Center for Animal Welfare and Veterinary Training and Capacity Building, have jointly developed a 3-year stepwise pilot approach on natural disaster preparedness, which main aim is to encourage the development of Veterinary Services (VS) Contingency Plans (CPs) for Animal Welfare during natural disasters and ensure proper livestock, wildlife, and companion animal welfare assistance during and after calamities.

The last and crucial step of this 3-year cycle was aimed at finalising the VS-CPs for Animal Welfare in flooding scenarios.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemics, this activity, originally planned as in presence event to be held in Italy in 2020, was turned into a digital Table Top Exercise (TTX) carried out on 9-11 November, 2021.

The TTX aimed at testing and validating a model of VS-CP - the Romanian one - for the management of Animal Welfare matters in flooding scenarios from a One Health perspective, whilst identifying issues and areas for improvement, with the aim to standardise the approach of the VS in the Balkans, sharing and comparing protocols, procedures and lessons learned. The training programme was designed to create – since the beginning – a peer-to-peer collaborative virtual environment between the beneficiaries (21 delegates from relevant countries) and the multidisciplinary facilitators’ team. After the presentation of the Romanian, Bulgarian and Montenegro progresses concerning their own contingency plans on animal welfare in flooding, four multi-national working groups, managed via licenced Zoom platform, were asked to participate in a flooding simulation exercise, accurately storyboarded by the IZS-Teramo team, hand-in-hand with the Romanian National Veterinary Sanitary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) experts.According to the “WOAH Guidelines on disaster management and risk reduction in relation to animal health and welfare and veterinary public health”, the four phases of the disaster management cycle have been simulated, using step-by-step duly contextualised information, data, instructions and tasks supported by original pictures and videos from past real cases presented in sequence simulating the battle rhythm, in order to guarantee an immersive experience by the trainees.

Participants noted the importance of strengthening Veterinary Services’ awareness on their crucial roles when dealing with natural disasters, for a better integration in the Civil Protection mechanisms and the need for organising more training events and simulation exercises, in order to improve the existing contingency plans and to identify and develop specific operational procedures.

Based on the results of this workshop, an Appreciative Enquiry Summit has been planned by the IZS-Teramo as follow-up action for the WOAH Platform on Animal Welfare for Europe, in order to set the next strategy concerning disaster management in the Region that comprises Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western European, and Central and Western Asian countries.

Keywords:

Simulation, table-top-exercise, virtual environment, peer-to-peer, adult distance learning, COVID-19 pandemics, One Health, virtual learning, veterinary science.