Description

Abstract: The Avian Flu School (AFS) was designed to help minimize the health and economic impact of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) by providing the training necessary to improve a community’s ability to prevent a HPAI outbreak and to respond to and recover from an outbreak. AFS is a multi-tiered, train-the-trainer program designed to educate animal health, public health, and agricultural extension workers about H5N1 HPAI, enabling them to deliver this information at the community level in developing countries. A pilot program of the four-day course, which consists of four modules and a practical session, was taught at the University of California, Davis; Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania; and Texas A&M University in 2006. A total of 83 teachers, observers, coordinators, and trainees participated in the pilot courses. Course evaluation scores, provided by trainees, improved from four out of five during the first pilot course at UC Davis to over 4.4 out of five for the last pilot course at Texas A&M. Evaluation scores for the individual modules similarly improved. After minor modifications to the Content in response to comments received during the pilot courses, additional courses were taught in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Djibouti.