In most African countries, deep changes are occurring in the organisation of national veterinary services, and in the relationships between farmers, private veterinarians and veterinary services. Moreover, the epidemiological situation of rinderpest and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, and the increasing importance of emerging diseases such as Rift valley fever gives a growing importance to valuable epidemiological information. Consequently, implementation of efficient disease surveillance networks is a priority for all the national veterinary services and training plays a major role to acquire these new working methods from the field to the central level.