July 2024 | Canadian Food Inspection Agency | by Christine Fehlner-Gardiner and Emma Dickinson
International scientific collaboration on animal disease prevention, diagnosis, response and management must keep pace with the globalization of our economies and societies. Increased trade, population growth and climate change lead to new challenges in managing the spread of animal diseases. This includes zoonoses – diseases that can spread between animals and humans.
Animal diseases like avian influenza and African swine fever (ASF) can have transboundary impacts and highlight the need for coordinated international response efforts. Collaboration among animal health experts around the world is key to protecting our economies, food, people and animals from the impacts of disease.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is Canada’s national animal health authority. The CFIA collaborates closely with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) to help improve animal health and enhance the sustainability of animal resources around the world. WOAH and the CFIA promote a One Health approach that recognizes the connections and interdependence of human, animal, plant and environmental health.
WOAH Reference Laboratories
WOAH depends on a network of scientific expertise in nearly 250 animal health laboratories around the world to collect, analyze and share scientific information on global animal disease control. This network consists of laboratories designated by WOAH as centers of excellence that provide scientific and technical advice on specific animal diseases, known as Reference Laboratories. Each of these labs also has a designated reference expert – a leading researcher on the diagnosis and control of the disease in question.
When there is a suspected case of an animal disease in a region, a sample goes to the appropriate Reference Laboratory for confirmation through accredited diagnostic laboratory tests. Through WOAH, the Reference Laboratory shares the results with the relevant authorities around the world responsible for managing and controlling the disease in question. The work of WOAH Reference Laboratories is essential to:
- monitor and detect animal diseases
- collaborate on research to control these diseases
- setting international standards for disease surveillance and diagnosis
- supporting international trade of animals and animal products
- build global capacity for animal health laboratories
Designation as a Reference Laboratory is a sign of scientific leadership, excellence and integrity. WOAH has currently designated four CFIA laboratories as Reference Laboratories in 11 animal diseases.
- The National Centre for Animal Disease (NCAD) in Lethbridge, with expertise in anthrax, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and bovine viral diarrhea
- The National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease (NCFAD) in Winnipeg, with expertise in ASF, classical swine fever (CSF), avian influenza (poultry) and foot-and-mouth disease
- The Centre for Foodborne and Animal Parasitology at the Saskatoon Laboratory, with expertise in trichinellosis
- The Ottawa Animal Health Laboratory (at the Fallowfield campus), with expertise in rabies, chronic wasting disease, and scrapie
The CFIA’s reference laboratories and collaborating centres across Canada, including WOAH Reference Laboratories.
Sharing expertise through WOAH Twinning Projects
To improve global access to high-quality animal disease expertise and diagnostic testing, WOAH champions Laboratory Twinning Projects between its Reference Laboratories and other institutes around the world that wish to improve scientific capacity and expertise.
In each Twinning Project, WOAH pairs a “parent” institute with a “candidate” institute. These projects facilitate the exchange of knowledge, expertise and resources to help candidate institutes enhance their diagnostic capabilities, refine testing methodologies and strengthen disease surveillance systems. Both parent and candidate institutes benefit from Twinning Projects through relationship building, research collaborations and overall improved technical capabilities.
Ultimately, everyone wins with a better, stronger, faster global network of diagnostic and research laboratories that promote the early detection and effective control of harmful diseases. These projects help to evenly distribute expertise in animal diseases around the world and can help candidate institutes eventually become Reference Laboratories themselves – leading to benefits for their own country and region.
The CFIA is an active participant in WOAH Twinning Projects. Led by experts at CFIA parent institutes, Canada has participated in WOAH Twinning Projects with the following countries:
- Ghana, for avian influenza
- Guatemala, for CSF
- Cuba, for BSE
- Peru, for rabies and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs)
- Colombia, for avian influenza and Newcastle disease
Case study: improving diagnostic capacity for rabies and TSEs in Peru
Between April 2019 and March 2020, the CFIA’s Ottawa Animal Health Laboratory (OAHL) participated in a WOAH Twinning Project with the Centro de Diagnóstico de Sanidad Animal (UCDSA-SENASA), in Lima, Perú.
Through collaboration with CFIA experts, UCDSA-SENASA enhanced its diagnostic capacity for rabies and TSEs, specifically scrapie and chronic wasting disease. The candidate institute was able to introduce new methods for diagnosis, pathogen characterization and virus sequencing.
The project also helped to enhance the candidate institute’s biosafety, biosecurity and quality assurance programs to support these diagnostic activities. This included a number of infrastructure upgrades, enhanced workflows and establishing a process to conduct internal biosafety audits – an improvement that benefits UCDSA-SENASA as a whole. These enhancements to quality assurance programs, standard operating procedures and training plans helped get UCDSA-SENASA prepared to apply for accreditation by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Both laboratories had the opportunity to play host for the other institute. CFIA experts spent several days in Peru for audits, evaluations and training, and UCDSA-SENASA spent a couple of weeks in Canada for hands-on training at the OAHL. At the end of the project, UCDSA-SENASA also hosted an international workshop with participants from Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil and Canada, as well as faculty members and students from virology and veterinary programs at local universities. The workshop included presentations, round-table discussions and laboratory tours and concluded with commitments from the participating countries and stakeholders to develop a laboratory network to continue collaborating into the future.
The Twinning Project between Canada and Peru helped UCDSA-SENASA grow as a regional leader in rabies and TSE expertise, while clearly demonstrating the importance of science diplomacy and international collaboration.