EFSA’s Biological Hazards & Animal Health and Welfare (BIOHAW) Unit regularly collects information from European countries on detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses in domestic and wild birds, and more recently also in mammals. Based on data collected through the Animal Disease Notification System (ADIS) of the European Commission and the World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), as well as data voluntarily submitted by European countries to EFSA, regular updates on the avian influenza situation in Europe and worldwide are provided. In addition, EFSA also collects, compiles and analyses information on countries’ legally required and voluntary surveillance activities. However, in order to enhance preparedness for HPAI in Europe, EFSA has outsourced several activities to provide early warning systems, to increase knowledge of circulating avian influenza viruses, and fill evident research gaps.

The present call, EFSA aims to test the added value of an active surveillance component in wild birds in 9 selected geographic areas (Figure 1), when combined with already existing surveillance activities carried out by different stakeholders across Europe. Pipelines for the rapid detection and identification of avian influenza viruses are foreseen to make surveillance results available in almost real-time.

This call aims to build capacities (infrastructure for capturing/sampling wild birds, and testing/sequencing of samples) for active surveillance of highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild birds by creating a network of surveillance nodes in Europe.

This call is to be intended complementary to other initiatives launched at local, regional, national and/or European level on the same topic. To this aim, applications proposing synergies with existing initiatives that bring added value and contribute to the objectives of this call (as listed in the paragraph below) are welcomed and rewarded, as detailed in the award criteria listed in Section 2.5 of this document.

The aim is to complement but not to double-fund already existing or planned activities, which is why allocated budget and tasks may vary between lots.