Food safety is a global issue with diverse challenges along various critical points in the food production chain. In India, food safety programs including establishment of surveillance programs and quantitative approaches through integration of various scientific disciplines, streamlined data collection, and analyses were still limited and inconsistently applied. There was need to build capacity of public health workforce in the areas of food surveillance, food borne disease surveillance, incident reporting, investigation of an outbreak and inspection.

H5N1 virus occurs mainly in birds. It is highly contagious and deadly among them. However, transmission in human is rare. The first and only confirmed case of human infection with avian influenza H5N1 virus in Nigeria was in 2006. Sporadic infection among poultry has been occurring in Nigeria with yearly estimated loss of millions of Dollars. Six Local Government Areas of Oyo State, Nigeria reported confirmed cases of H5N1 among birds. Affected birds were culled and human avian influenza surveillance was instituted.

The emergence of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) in 2012 had placed a great concern on the public health institutions globally and in particular in the Arab region. The gaps in knowledge related to the novel virus put the healthcare systems in Qatar and the entire region in critical position amid growing concerns that this virus might take a deadly pattern. As the second reported case in Qatar had a documented relationship with animals, veterinary and environmental health sectors were invited to join the national outbreak control taskforce.

Kyasannur Forest Disease (KFD) is a tick borne viral disease first reported in Shimoga district of Karnataka, India. On January 6th 2015, the disease has spread to neighbouring state, Kerala and a forest guard from Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad who had disposed the monkey carcass was succumbed to the disease following confirmation of the disease from Manipal institute of virology. Spot surveillance of the area by Health department revealed 15 more fever cases among women working as fire line workers. Out of these twelve cases were confirmed to be KFD.