Abstract
Non-epidemic emergencies caused by major adverse events, like earthquakes, can have immediate and long-term impacts on human as well as on animal health and welfare. Estimating possible impacts induced by seismic events is a crucial point for planning and preparing mitigating actions. Literature is scarce regarding the existence of indicators aimed at estimating the allocation of resources for preserving animal health and welfare in a seismic risk scenario. The aims of this pilot study were: to estimate the impact of an earthquake on animal health and welfare through the identification of all hazards related to, as prerequisite for targeting interventions and quantifying human, instrumental and financial resources and to build relevant indicators for risk mitigation as relevant tools for Veterinary Authorities involved in the management of non-epidemic veterinary emergencies, especially in the seismic one. 31 experts from research, Veterinary Public Health fields and Civil Protection were enrolled in a first Expert Knowledge Elicitation that was carried out according to the rules of the Appreciative Inquiry Summit, a model built on 4 phases - discovery, dream, design and destiny that was applied in plenary elicitation sessions alternating with 4 subgroups elicitation sessions guided by 7 facilitators. The 4 subgroups were composed on average of 8 experts, suitably balanced with respect to professional profiles and respective affiliations were guided in the discussions by one or two facilitators. The results achieved by each of the 4 subgroups were presented in plenary, they were extensively compared and debated. A list of hazards with related causes, interventions and resources needed was drafted. At the end of the Expert Knowledge Elicitation phase, each of the 4 subgroups was tasked to build relevant indicators according to the hazards identified. Overall, 23 risk indicators were identified. Of these, 14 were classified as belonging to mitigation, prevention and preparedness phases, that is in peacetime or defined as pre-earthquake indicators, 9 indicators were attributed to the response and recovery phases or defined as post-earthquake indicators. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study aimed at identifying useful indicators for the management of earthquakes in the veterinary field to be included in the national contingency plan in accordance with the WOAH “guidelines on disaster management and risk reduction in relation to animal health and welfare and veterinary public health”. The risk indicators represent a tool needed for the implementation of the National Information System for non-epidemic veterinary emergencies (SIVENE) web GIS, namely for emergency planning, response and recovery to facilitate decision-making process at local, regional and national level; they could have potential applicability at national level being derived from a representative group of experts and the majority of them could be also extended to other type of disasters.
References
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Possenti, L., Savini, L., Conte, A., D’Alterio, N., Danzetta, M.L., Di Lorenzo, A., Nardoia, M., Migliaccio, P., Tora, S. & Dalla Villa P. (2020). A New Information System for the Management of Non-Epidemic veterinary Emergencies. Animals, 2020, 10, 983.
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