Faculty of Veterinary Science’s annual Faculty Day showcases high-level research outputs

Posted on September 05, 2016

The recent annual Faculty Day of the Faculty of Veterinary Science has once again proven to be one of the highlights on the calendar of the Faculty.

Not only did the day provide the opportunity to showcase high-level research outputs but also gave researchers the chance to share their research with peers, colleagues and students. The day was also attended by veterinary pharmaceutical companies displaying and exhibiting their products and services while this year’s Arnold Theiler Memorial Lecture, presented by Prof Lucille Blumberg from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NHLS), was indeed a highlight during the event.

The Dean of the Faculty, Prof Darrell Abernethy delivered the welcoming address and emphasised that the Faculty must continuously keep track of and position itself with regard to new advances in technology and an ever-changing global and local environment which increasingly pose challenges for the environment, such as new emerging diseases, poverty and the interaction between humans, wildlife and production animals.

He warned that more inroads need to be made in the areas of conservation, poverty alleviation, food security and the prevention of some diseases with a view to better economic sustainability. The immediate challenge facing the Faculty is to determine how the institution can thrive and operate in such an environment. With this in mind the Faculty needs to excel its research by means of focused research areas, more collaborations nationally and globally, conferences and an increase in citations and research publications. The Faculty’s research must also be relevant to the needs of the country and Africa to make a difference while at the same time must be recognised for what it is doing.

In order to do that undergraduate and postgraduate student training must be a the heart of teaching and learning and must be honed to fit the challenges of the current veterinary and economic environment by identifying key research focus areas and strengthen the Faculty’s existing ones. Prof Abernethy stressed the continued engagement with government to address certain identified needs, in particular issues such as food security, poverty alleviation and antimicrobial resistance. It is crucial to ensure that government and the faculty are on the same pathway even if it means that the Faculty increasingly shifts its focus towards issues of national importance.

Prof Lucille Blumberg, Deputy Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory of South Africa provided one of the highlights of the day when she delivered the Sir Arnold Theiler Memorial lecture entitled “One Health: a decade of shared experiences and benefits”. While One Health is an essential research focus area in the Faculty’s strategic plan, her presentation was of particular relevancy to the veterinary profession. She specifically elaborated on combined projects that have been initiated to look at the prevalence of zoonoses in potentially highly-exposed humans at the animal/human health interface. As an active practitioner of One Health, Prof Blumberg has worked closely with animal practitioners in outbreak and case prevention and management of avian influenza, Rift Valley fever, rabies, the Zika virus, and in the investigation of cases of acute febrile illness for zoonotic diseases.

Among others, she referred to respective outbreaks of Rift Valley Fever (2008), African Tick bite fever (2012) and Rabies, the latter a focal point in KwaZulu-Natal which required intense animal control. In this regard a One Health project was started in the province to eliminate rabies in the province by 2013. In the case of the Rift Valley fever, important measures were introduced such as immunization with the assistance of the government, health worker education and community awareness programmes. Although a large number of farmers were affected, the disease was later eradicated in the affected areas. Further disease control with regard to all these diseases included contract tracing and monitoring and intense blood testing measures. She emphasised the critical factors of continued collaboration and communication in respect of these and similar diseases and pointed out that in 2015 renewed prioritization was given to the identification of pathogens that can lead to possible outbreaks.

The quality of the oral presentations on the day was of a high standard. A different system for oral presentations was already introduced in 2015 according to which the best 10 oral presentations are chosen from Departments which are then presented during faculty day. The presentations covered various different disciplines in the field of veterinary science and ranged from research projects on companion animals, production animals and wildlife to work in the fields of phytochemicals and vaccine related studies. A further 32 poster presentations were part of the third session at the event showcasing the wide variety of disciplines the faculty’s researchers are focusing on including poultry, production animal studies, wildlife management and prevention of diseases including zoonosis, companion animal clinical studies, anatomical and physiological studies, and veterinary tropical disease areas of research.

The formal part of the day was concluded with the customary annual Faculty Day awards. The 2016 winners were as follows:

  • Researcher of the Year – Prof Estelle Venter (Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases)
  • Best oral presentation – Dr Elise van der Heijden (Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases)
  • Best poster presentation – Dr Gareth Zeiler (Department of Paraclinical Sciences)

The 9 best other researchers in the faculty were Prof Peter Thompson, Prof Geoff Fosgate, Prof Johan Schoeman, Prof Vinny Naidoo, Prof Anita Michel, Prof Andre Ganswindt, Prof Christo Botha, Prof Amelia Goddard and Prof Dayo Fasina.

Click on the link below to view the 2016 Faculty Research Overview / Programme

2016 Faculty Day programme & Research Overview


Below: Dr Clint Austin (left) of Bayer hands Dr Elise van der Heijden of the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases her prize as the winner of the best oral presentation during Faculty Day 2016

 



 
 

 

- Author CvB

Copyright © University of Pretoria 2024. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 Corona Virus South African Resource Portal

To contact the University during the COVID-19 lockdown, please send an email to [email protected]

FAQ's Email Us Virtual Campus Share Cookie Preferences