Citation: Pediconi, O.; D’Albenzio, S.; Gkrintzali, G.; Calistri, P.; Georgiev, M. Crisis Preparedness Exercise on Rift Valley Fever Introduction into Europe under a One Health Approach. Microorganisms 2022, 10, 1864. https://doi.org/10.3390/ microorganisms10091864 Academic Editor: Alex D. Greenwood Received: 25 July 2022 Accepted: 14 September 2022 Published: 18 September 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). microorganisms Article Crisis Preparedness Exercise on Rift Valley Fever Introduction into Europe under a One Health Approach Ombretta Pediconi 1, * , Silvia D’Albenzio 1 , Georgia Gkrintzali 2 , Paolo Calistri 1 and Milen Georgiev 2 1 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale”, 64100 Teramo, Italy 2 European Food Safety Authority, 43126 Parma, Italy * Correspondence: o.pediconi@izs.it Abstract: Crisis preparedness training programmes are substantial for the effective management of contingency plans. Rift Valley Fever (RVF) was chosen as the vector transmitted zoonosis for a crisis preparedness exercise co-organised in 2021 by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale” (IZS-Teramo). The online table-top simulation exercise was planned to strengthen the network of Mediterranean countries on rapid risk assessment, risk/crisis management and risk communication during a human/animal health crisis, adopting the ‘One Health’ approach. Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and Turkey were the beneficiary countries, while European Commission (EC), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), World Health Organisation (WHO), World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) were the designated observers who were actively involved along the entire capacity building process. The simulation exercise was based on a fictional case study in which the zoonotic mosquito-borne disease, not currently present in Europe, was accidentally introduced into the European Union via the accidental transfer of infected vectors from a RVF-endemic country. The training activity was positively assessed by the participants and useful suggestions were given to address further future similar initiatives. Keywords: Rift Valley Fever; simulation exercise; emergency preparedness; One Health 1. Introduction Crisis preparedness training programmes are substantial for the effective management of contingency. They are crucial elements in preparedness schemes that contribute to the efficient and timely analysis and response to threats, including those directed to human, animal, plant health, food safety or food supply chain, and with the potential to affect different countries and various sub-populations in time. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the European Risk Assessment Agency in the areas of food, feed safety, plant, animal health and welfare. In the field of crisis preparedness and response, through multiannual programmes of training and workshops, EFSA enhances and intensifies the collaboration with its institutional stakeholders to be prepared for various crisis scenarios. General Food Law and specifically article 55 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 [1] outlines the responsibilities of the European Commission (EC) to draw up, in close cooper- ation with EFSA and the Member States (MSs) of the European Union (EU), a general plan for crisis management in the field of food and feed safety. According to the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/3002 [2], this plan is activated when a situation that presents a risk to consumers, animal, or plant health and cannot be controlled by the existing mechanisms. EFSA’s role in the area of a food/feed safety crisis is to provide scien- tific and technical assistance in the crisis management procedures and be able to respond Microorganisms 2022, 10, 1864. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10091864 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/microorganisms