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Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies
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srilangka-workshop

Workshop on Wildlife Health Issues in Public Health, Agriculture and Environmental Conservation

Wednesday, 23 July 2008

This post is also available in: Indonesian

The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, together with the Centre for Coastal Health, Nanaimo, Canada and the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC), Saskatoon, Canada, which is the OIE collaborating centre for wildlife health, conducted a Training Workshop on Wildlife Health Issues in Public Health, Agriculture and Environmental Conservation. The workshop was conducted at the Institute of Continuing Education of the Department of Animal Production and Health on July 22nd-24th, 2008 at Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

The workshop was primarily targeted for local participants in Sri Lanka who are responsible for general public health, animal disease surveillance, zoonotic diseases, food animal health, food safety, wildlife management and conservation and in reporting animal diseases in meeting international obligations. The workshop was attended by 30 local participants, consisting of government officers who work at the Department of Animal Production and Health, Department of Zoological Gardens, Department of Wildlife, Elephant Orphanage, Veterinary Research Institute, and veterinarians who work at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences of the University of Peradeniya. Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies (CIVAS) also participated in this workshop. M.D. Winda Widyastuti, DVM, as representative of CIVAS, was sponsored by Veterinarians Without Borders/Veterinaeiris San Frontieres (VWB/VSF), Canada, to attend the workshop. Other international participants who were also sponsored by VWB/VSF were Prof. Dr. Parntep Ratanakorn (Faculty of Veterinary Science, Mahidol University, Thailand) and Dr. Pongpon Homkon (Elephant Hospital, Lampang, Thailand).

The training workshop was a part of the capacity building initiatives carried under the Teasdale Corti research grant on “Veterinary Public Health as part of the Global Response to Emerging Disease”, which is directed by Craig Stephen, DVM, PhD (Director of Center for Coastal Health, University of Calgary, Canada). There were three days of training workshop consisting of several presentations. Frederick A. Leighton, DVM, PhD (CCWHC) and Craig Stephen, DVM, PhD were the keynote speakers for the first two days. Topics presented were Social, Economic and Ecologic Importance of Pathogens in Wild Animals, Elements of Disease Ecology, Measuring Disease, Components of a National Wildlife Health Program and Intervention to Manage Wildlife Diseases. On the last day, there were several presentations by local speakers who explain more about biodiversity and wildlife conservation in Sri Lanka, activities done in wildlife in Sri Lanka such as surveillance for avian influenza in wild bird, surveillance in elephants, and preparedness for exotic diseases.

On the second day, there was group discussion for one session. Each group had a different assignment such as developing a program for wildlife surveillance and discuss certain topics in Sri Lanka such as Rinderpest surveillance and Avian Influenza surveillance. Every group consisted of participants from Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia and in the end everybody compared their activities or programs in wildlife surveillance. Through the discussion, people exchanged information and programs in order to engage ideas that would be valuable for improvement the program in each country.***

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Workshop on Wildlife Health Issues in Public Health, Agriculture and Environmental Conservation

by boghen time to read: 2 min
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