Recently, Ian Duncan Robertson, Honorary Professor of the Murdoch University and Professor of HZAU in Hubei Province Hundred Talents Scheme, guested at a high-end forum on “Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship” held by College of Animal Sciences & Technology / College of Veterinary Medicine in HZAU, and gave a lecture on “The Power of Epidemiology in Disease control--A Case Study of Bovine Brucellosis”.
The lecture was delivered in the form of questions and answers. Why do we control diseases? Because controlling diseases can increase productivity and lower costs so as to bring greater economic benefits, most importantly, it can reduce the risk of human infection of zoonosis.
At first, Robertson gave an introduction of brucellosis. It is a zoonosis that causes livestock abortion, mastitis, arthritis and other diseases. Diagnoses of the disease include serological diagnosis, clinical diagnosis, and etiological diagnosis. Different diagnostic methods are selected for different needs.
Introducing a study of prevalence and risk of yak brucellosis in Tibet by one of his doctoral students, Robertson then argued that using epidemiological survey can help us find not only the prevalence rate of the disease in an area, but also risk factors. Thus, we can provide farmers and businesses with effective measures to prevent and reduce the incidence of the disease.
Later, Robertson told his personal experience of eradicating bovine tuberculosis in Australia. The purification of a disease involves policy support, financial support, industry support, animal tracking, and disease surveillance. Epidemiological investigation plays an important role in this entire process. In China, Robertson believed that the major factor affecting the spread of disease is animal transportation. If we want to purify the disease, we need stock owners’ support, financial support, banning the infected animals and products from entering the market, strengthening bio-safety protection, and encouraging public participation.
Translator: Zhang Kaili
Supervisor: Pan Buhan
http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2018/0126/51388.shtml
