About AHEAD

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ABOUT AHEAD

AHEAD is the Animal Health/Emerging Animal Diseases project of the Federation of American Scientists. It was formed in October 1995 to address infectious animal disease and zoonotic concerns within (a) the global framework of emerging and re-emerging diseases and (b) conceptual framework of the original FAS policy project called ProMED (Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases).

AHEAD is particularly concerned with building institutional capacity for detecting, identifying and preventing animal diseases in the developing world, with an emphasis on diseases shared by farmed and wild animals.

In December 1995, we founded the animal and zoonotic disease sector of ProMED-mail, a worldwide network of reporters and readers that reports disease outbreaks, enlisting Dr. Martin Hugh-Jones as the chief moderator. Since 1999 the project has had a limited association with ProMED-AHEAD-mail, given that the electronic reporting system is fully established and is sustaining its own momentum.

In March 1997, with the advice of ProMED's Animal Disease Working Group, we launched a survey of 28 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Results obtained were pivotal in assessing the feasibility of developing a program of to monitor infectious diseases shared by wild, farmed and captive/bred animals. The enthusiastic response from over half of these countries - and other developments - confirmed that the concept is attractive to, and needed by, the region. AHEAD in 1998 formed the Sub-Saharan Africa Surveillance Partnership with Onderstepoort Veterinary Insitute (OVI) in Pretoria, South Africa, and Tuskegee University in Alabama, USA. This partnership was deactivated in 1999, as the structure of a pilot test program was modified to operate under the rubric of FAS-ILIAD (International Lookouts for Infectious Animal Disease). Currently, the program is under consideration by potential collaborators in Tanzania. For more about this initiative go to ILIAD.
AHEAD-ILIAD is directed by Dorothy Preslar, supported by an expertInternational Advisory Board