Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Offers IowaFADefense Certification Program

May 20, 2020 — 

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) is offering a free continuing education program for veterinarians licensed in Iowa titled IowaFADefense. The focus of IowaFADefense is to increase the state's ability to rapidly detect, respond to, and contain foreign animal diseases.

Veterinarians completing the program will learn how to:

• diagnose foreign animal diseases,
• assist IDALS and USDA with foreign animal disease investigations,
• educate and oversee farm staff on the proper way to collect surveillance samples during an outbreak,
• work with their clients to enhance on-farm biosecurity,
• enhance on-farm record keeping strategies to quickly facilitate investigations, and
• conduct a small scale epidemiologic investigation on a farm.

The diseases covered in the program are: African swine fever, classical swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease, highly pathogenic avian influenza, and virulent Newcastle disease.

The program is entirely online and taught through a combination of webinars, interactive activities/modules, and video demonstrations. Veterinarians completing the entire program will earn 19 hours of continuing education credits. See the IowaFADefense flyer for more details.

While to assist IDALS during a foreign animal disease investigation or outbreak a veterinarian will need to have their USDA category 2 accreditation this program is open to all veterinarians in Iowa!

Register by June 5, 2020 with the following steps:

1. Visit http://www.iowafadresponse.com.
2. Follow the registration instructions on the main login screen.
3. Once registered, watch the IFAD Certification Program Welcome Video on the program homepage!