EQUATOR is a periodical of
the Office for International
Cooperation of the Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht
University.

Editorial board
J.HA. de Gooijer
(incl. production)
M.F.M. Langelaar MVM
R.W. Paling DVM PhD
(editor-in-chief)

EQUATOR is published bi-
monthly. The January, May and
September issues of EQUATOR
are published in English.

Subscription is free of charge.
For changes in address and
termination of subscription
please return the corrected label
to the editorial office.
If undeliverable please return to
the editorial office.

In this first issue of EQUATOR in
1995 we like to ask your attention for
two events that took place in the last
few months. The Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine organized the 5quot;^ international
symposium on quot;Tropical Animal Health
and Productionquot; on 30 September, 1994
in Utrecht and on 13 January, 1995 a
symposium entitled quot;A Research
Approach to Livestock Production from
a Systems Perspectivequot; was organized
at the Wageningen Agricultural Univer-
sity as a farewell to Prof. Dr. Dick
Zwart on the occasion of his retirement
as Professor in Tropical Animal Hus-
bandry.

Two papers presented at the Sympo-
sium in Utrecht, one by Prof. D. Zwart
and one by Dr. R. Geiger of the Inter-
national Atomic Energy Agency,
pointed out matters of general interest
to our readers and we therefore
reserved place for the abstracts in this
issue of EQUATOR.

For those who are wondering about the
future of the quot;Chairquot; and quot;Department
of Tropical Animal Husbandryquot; at Wa-
geningen Agricultural University, there
was also some news on the 13quot;^ of Ja-
nuary in Wageningen. Due to financial
constraints and as a result of recent
views on agriculture, the Department
of Tropical Animal Husbandry ceased
to exist as a separate unit some time
ago. A new quot;Department of Animal
Production Systemsquot; and a new Chair
(with the same name) held by Prof. Dr.
Ir. Herman van Keulen, were recently
established. This department will have
the task to provide education and per-
form research on animal production
systems in the various climatical zones,
including the tropics.

During the Symposium Dr. Ir. Henk
Udo highlighted the new teaching pro-
gramme of the department. Students
who are interested in the tropics can
do their major subject in Animal pro-
duction systems and opt for a differen-
tiation on production systems of the
tropics.

During his farewell speech Prof. Zwart
expressed himself on the future of the
department as follows: quot;Hopefully this
collaboration (with institutes in and
outside the Netherlands editor) will
intensify in the future to the extent that
one professor can be appointed in
Tropical Animal Husbandry (at Wage-
ningen)/Tropical Animal Health (at
Utrecht), but now with his/her base
outside the Netherlands (in the tropics
editor). Certainly the ground for such
an arrangement has already been laid
in Wageningen. Apart from this I am
confident about the future of the new
Department of Animal Production Sys-
tems and the education and research
on animal husbandry outside the Neth-
erlandsquot;.

One must seriously hope that the sug-
gestion from Wageningen to intensify
the collaboration between the univer-
sities of Wageningen and Utrecht in
the field of livestock production and
health in the tropics is a gesture that
does not remain unanswered. At this
time of severe cuts in the budgets of
the universities, collaboration is the
only way to guarantee that in the
coming years sufficient expertise will be
available to educate veterinarians and
livestock specialists for duties in the
tropics.

Professor Zwart started his career 40
years ago (see EQUATOR vol. 4, July
and September, 1992) as the veterinary
expert in Dutch New Guinea. He spent
almost one third of his career in tropi-
cal countries. He had to overcome
several critical stages during his long
active life, but fortunately he was
always surrounded by friends who sup-
ported him with good advice. One of
his African friends taught him the
golden rule: quot;Always make sure that
you know the rules of the gamequot;. This
sounded easy but Prof. Zwart soon
found out that the rules of the game
tend to change in the course of time,
often before the end of the previous
game. Visions on future developments
also originate from certain rules. In his
farewell address Professor Zwart
looked back not only to evaluate the
views of his predecessors but also the
achievements of the section of Tropical
Animal Husbandry. Whereby the gen-
eral question remained: quot;What were the
rules of the game?quot;. Because in his
view tropical animal husbandry is inex-
tricably bound up with tropical animal
health, he also reviewed the inaugural
lectures of his predecessors at the Fac-
ulty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht
University.

Hoekstra (1950, 1963) and Bakker
(1982) considered feed to be the major
limiting factor in cattle production in
the tropics. In 1967 Professor Zwart
himself pointed out that it is useless to
vaccinate cattle that will die later on
because of a lack of fodder. He briefly
described the research findings of the
Wageningen staff on this subject. From
all the research efforts of the past years
one fascinating question emerged, na-
mely: quot;How is the feed intake regu-
lated?quot;. Ketelaars and Tolkamp formu-
lated in 1991 the hypothesis that
quot;optimization of the use of oxygen
could play a key rolequot;. The first
requirement to test this hypothesis
should be that a games master teaches
the players in this research, e.g. cell
biologists, physiologists, fodder experts,
their place in and the rules of the
game.

On Friday 13 January 1995 the Wageningen Agricultural University\'s section of
Animal Production Systems organized a symposium and a panel discussion on the
occasion of the retirement of Dr. Dick Zwart as professor in tropical animal
husbandry. During the symposium results of current research performed by staff
of the section were presented to an international audience. Later that day pro-
fessor Zwart gave his farewell address under the title: quot;What are the rules of the
game?quot;

Already in 1950 Hoekstra argued
strongly for the conservation of indige-
nous breeds of ruminants. Today the
loss of valuable genetical material is
still a major concern. Indigenous
breeds can be superior in different
quaUties, like heat resistance, disease
resistance and fertility. These qualities
are essential in an environment where
it is difficult to survive. Man is able to
control or influence aspects of the
environment. Despite this ability, there
is a worldwide urging to limit the use
of vaccines and veterinary drugs. More
and more the genetic capacity of ani-
mals to resist infection is exploited.

A lot of research on trypanotolerance
of N\'Dama cattle has been done. Wa-
geningen\'s Tropical Animal Husbandry
section used the West African dwarf
goat as a model. Their hypothesis was
that fodder intake of these goats is
linked to the genetic ability to control
certain a-specific products of the
immune system, in this case the
Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF). Ani-
mals that are able to limit their TNF
production can maintain the level of
fodder intake better and so have a
better chance to survive. Professor
Zwart is of the opinion that in the near
future more of this type of connections
will be found. However, these efforts
can only succeed in close cooperation
with research institutes in Africa.

To professor Zwart it is a dilemma
whether socio-economical aspects of
cattle breeding should prevail when it
comes to the need to increase produc-
tion. On the one hand one should not
disturb the existing stable social and
cultural relations in a community, but
on the other hand if Africa wants to
supply its growing population with
products of animal origin, the produc-
tion methods must be intensified. An
isolated self-supporting rural commun-
ity is something of the past.
Concerning the future of livestock
production in the tropics professor
Zwart stated that the demand for pro-
ducts of animal origin will increase and
that around the bigger cities more or
less intensive cattle production systems
will develop. The emphasis will be on
integrated crop-livestock systems, in
Africa as well as in Asia. Nomadic
cattle breeding will deminish. Prof.
Zwart hoped that the Sahel project in

Burkina Faso can generate the rules of
the game for the integration of
sustainable arable farming and stock-
breeding.

Despite huge research efforts a major
breakthrough has not taken place.
Animal production per animal health
worker went slightly down in the past
years. In Subsaharan Africa the produc-
tion of meat and milk per capita is one
of the lowest in the world, despite large
investments in cattle breeding projects.

The challenge for the future will be to
develop cattle breeding systems that
join in with the needs and restrictions
of the small farmers.
The systems approach is very popular
nowadays. Researchers consider a farm
as a whole, in other words he or she
tries to understand how the different
components are connected and interact
with the people and the environment.
In this way a diagnosis of the limiting
factors can be made. Prof. Zwart
doubted whether this approach can
solve all problems, but at least it can
contribute by formulating the main
problems sustainable livestock produc-
tion encounters.

Livestock is often regarded as a threat
to sustainability, but this is not always
correct. One should be careful that the
goat beside the corpse is not pointed
out the culprit.

Professor Zwart counted himself lucky
with his staff, who without exception
are experts in building bridges between
the different disciplines. He did not
know the exact rules of the game here,
but in his opinion to be a successful
staff member in his team one should
have worked at least several years in a
foreign country, one should be open to
other opinions, one has to be able to
solve problems and one should be able
to deal with disappointments.
As far as teaching is concerned, it will
be absolutely necessary in the future to
teach in Enghsh, because this will be
the only way to have a good interaction
between students of different regions.
Prof. Zwart warned his students that in
the current time there is no need for
young generalists. However, despite the
fact that sometimes he had some diffi-
culties to keep a high level, he always
regarded teaching his students inspi-
ring. It was stimulating to see students
return from a traineeship in a tropical
country as wiser people.

At the end of the ceremony Dr.
M.P.M. Vos, President of the executive
board of Wageningen Agricultural
University had the privilege to decorate
Prof. Dick Zwart in the name of Her
Majesty the Oueen with the insignia
belonging to the rank of Knight of the
Order of the Dutch Lion. Visibly
moved by this unexpected honour Dick
Zwart received the congratulations
from his colleagues and friends during
the crowded farewell reception that
followed the ceremony.

Livestock production in tropical countries is still hampered by outbreaks of the
major animal diseases that have been controlled or eradicated for many decades in
the temperate zone. Linked with declining animal health services in many Third
World countries and poorly or non-existent disease surveillance system and despite
large scale control programmes, outbreaks of diseases such as rinderpest and
contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) continue to occur.

Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Divi-
sion, when re-evaluating the direction
of its programme of support in animal
health, assessed the diagnostic capa-
bUities of 15 African countries and
concluded that many countries were at
that time unable to diagnose even the
major livestock diseases for a variety of
reasons. This situation was occurring
despite the fact that most of the coun-
tries had had considerable bilateral
support in animal disease diagnosis,
often from several donors. Such sup-
port invariably had involved the intro-
duction of a multitude of diagnostic
techniques. Unfortunately many of
these techniques were not appropriate
for the developing country\'s situation
and reUed heavily on continuing outside

support and expertise. Consequently,
after the withdrawal of the donor sup-
port, in many of these countries such
techniques were not sustainable and
the countries were soon left without a
capabihty to either diagnose or monitor
animal diseases.

In an attempt to overcome this prob-
lem, a number of criteria were defined
for a diagnostic assay that would be
suitable for the sort of conditions found
in laboratories in developing countries.
The test should require a minimum of
training and equipment and should be
sustainable after these initial inputs had
been made. The equipment should be
robust and not require an exacting
power or water supply. The test should
be applicable to a large number of
diseases and be definable in terms of
its sensitivity and specificity for a par-
ticular disease. It should be easily stan-
dardized and amenable to internal and
external quality control. Finally, the test
should be able to process a large num-
ber of samples with a low cost per
sample. It became clear that one assay
technique, the enzyme-linked immu-
nosorbent assay (ELISA) fulfilled all
these criteria and support for the intro-
duction and use of this technology in
developing countries became the main
thrust of the Animal Health Program-
me of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division.

Dr. Geiger presented the
work of the Joint
FAO/IAEA Division at the
symposium in Utrecht
(photo: De Gooijer)

the concept of supplying the necessary
ELISA reagents in a kit providing all
the necessary reagents, relatively stan-
dardized for the majority of the dis-
eases and containing a detailed proto-
col. From the outset of the programme
it was clear that all the basic equip-
ment necessary to run the test had to
be provided and all the reagents apart
from the water needed to be contained
in the kit.

Each ELISA for a specific disease is
developed in cooperation with the
leading research institutes for that
disease e.g. the rinderpest competitive
ELISA was developed by the World
Reference Laboratory for rinderpest,
Pirbright Laboratories, UK. From
where the biological reagents in the kit
are still produced. Further develop-
mental work to provide a kit suitable
for use in the tropics and capable of
dealing with rigorous environmental

influences of prolonged travel without
any deterioration is carried out at the
FAO/IAEA Central Laboratory and
Office International des Epizooties
(OIE) Collaborating Centre for ELISA
and Molecular Techniques in the Diag-
nosis of Animal Diseases, which itself is
a part of IAEA Laboratory Complex in
Austria. Here FAO/IAEA ELISA kits
are validated, full specificity and sensi-
tivity data are prepared and the assays
are presented to OIE for inclusion as a
recognized and prescribed test for the
disease in question.

To ensure the reliability of the results
obtained, each kit contains a full set of
internal quality control reagents as
recommended by the OIE and in some
cases an external quality assurance
programme is in operation for that kit.
Internal controls are included on each
ELISA plate to assure the user that the
assay is performing correctly, whereas
the external quality control is operated
on an annual basis to assure those
outside the testing laboratory that the
results being produced are valid.
The kits themselves are for the most
part, assembled at the FAO/IAEA
Central Laboratory and distributed to
the end user via the national United
Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) office.

Support for the introduction and use of
ELISA technology is provided through
an IAEA Technical Cooperation Pro-
ject (TCP) or an FAO/IAEA Research
Contract, itself part of an FAO/LAEA
Coordinated Research Programme. An
IAEA TCP usually operates from 3 to
5 years and can provide all the essen-
tial equipment (ELISA reader, pipettes
etc. of approximately US$ 20,000),
expert services to introduce and techni-
cally backstop the test (2 months of
approximately US$ 20,000) and fellow-
ships to provide the training (6 months
of approximately US$ 18,000). In many
cases a TCP is linked to the award of a
Research Contract at a particular lab-
oratory. These Contracts, each worth

up to US$ 10,000 annually, are
awarded as part of an FAO/IAEA
Coordinated Research Programme
(CRP) under which the work is clearly
defined and focused on a particular
research topic.

Whilst a major consideration in select-
ing ELISA technology was its long-
term sustainability in the developing
country situation, it is still necessary to
provide essential reagents and some
technical backstopping after the termi-
nation of a 3 - 5 year national TCP. To
achieve this a regional TCP has been
established which effectively extends
the support provided under a national
TCP or through the inclusion in a
Coordinated Research Programme.
This support although minimal in pure
financial terms (US$ 4,000/country/ye-
ar) is crucial and by providing support
for the routine supply of ELISA kits,
for some fiu^ther training and for
trouble shooting, has provided a remar-
kable continuity to our programme for
the improvement of animal disease
diagnosis and surveillance in Africa.

In providing support to improve disease
diagnosis, the aim has not been to
merely transfer ELISA technology, but
to transfer this technology within the
context of control or eradication pro-
grammes for the major diseases affec-
ting the livestock in a particular country
or region. In providing this diagnostic
tool in terms of a fully developed and
validated ELISA kit we honed fn
enable the counterpart to focus on the
real problem of diagnosis and control.
The TCP or CRP under which the

ELISA is introduced is initially targeted
on only one disease. However, once the
technique is firmly established, the
range of diseases for which it is utiUzed
is gradually expanded.

Along with the development of the
ELISA kits came the development of
statistically vaUd and epidemiological
sound sampling frames to estimate
prevalence or incidence of infec-
tion/vaccination. This technology and
the use of computers and specialist
software to facilitate data transfer and
management, forms an integral part of
our development work and technology
transfer. The results of these intro-
duced monitoring systems are now
being pubUshed routinely by a number
of African countries and this data con-
trasts sharply to previous passive moni-
toring reports relying on ad hoc infor-
mation.

In Africa our support has concentrated
on the two main diseases threatening
livestock in the region, rinderpest and
trypanosomiasis through a FAO/IAEA
Coordinated Research Programme on
the sero-monitoring of rinderpest in
Africa and through a FAO/IAEA
Coordinated Research Programme and
Regional Technical Cooperation Pro-
ject to Improve the Diagnosis and
Control of Animal Trypanosomiasis in
Africa through the Application of
Immunoassay Techniques (e.g. ELISA).
Apart from these regional programmes
a number of ELISAs for other diseases
Uke pest des petits ruminants (PPR),
CBPP, bovine leucosis, foot-and-mouth
disease (FMD), infectious bovine rhi-
notracheitis (IBR), babesiosis,
brucellosis, African horse sickness and
swine fever, are supported at the natio-
nal level. The rinderpest programme is
a component part of the Pan African
Rinderpest Campaign (PARC). In
essence a network of 21 national lab-
oratories has been estabUshed which
utilizes the FAO/IAEA rinderpest
competitive ELISA to detect antibodies

to rinderpest in cattle to determine the
effectiveness of national rinderpest
vaccination programmes. As countries
move towards a cessation of vaccina-
tion, this same system will be used to
identify any remaining pockets of virus
activity within a country and verify
freedom from the disease and its cau-
sative agent. This programme now over
8 years old, is based on a standardized
sampling design, executed on a yearly
basis, with standardized data collection
and reporting procedures Results are
published in a single document by the
Joint FAO/IAEA Division each year.

In trypanosomiasis the standard
parasitological techniques to monitor
the large scale trypanosomiasis and
tsetse control programmes in Africa
have proved too insensitive. Working
closely with the International Labora-
tory for Research on Animal Diseases
(ILRAD), Kenya we have developed a
FAO/IAEA trypanosomiasis ELISA
based on monoclonal antibodies for
detecting antigens of the various
trypanosomiasis species, which, used in
conjunction with existing techniques,
does provide the required level of sen-
sitivity and specificity. Through a FAO-
/lAEA Coordinated Research Pro-
gramme, an IAEA Regional Project
and a number of IAEA national TCPs
this ELISA is now being introduced
and used within the context of existing
national trypanosomiasis/tsetse control
programmes.

The diagnostic capabilities of national
veterinary laboratories in Africa to
monitor the major diseases affecting
their hvestock have been visibly
strengthened through the introduction
of ELISA technology. This technology
and its use in national and regional
disease control programmes has now
been firmly established in a sustainable
manner in over 25 countries in Africa.

Central to the success of the pro-
gramme has been the provision of
standardized and internationally vali-
dated ELISA kits. Sustainability has
been achieved through widespread
regional training and the establishment
of a cadre of African scientists capable
of utilizing this technology. The empha-
sis, which at the beginning of the pro-
gramme was focused on technology
transfer, has now changed and is con-
cerned with the use of this technology
as an epidemiological tool for the mo-
nitoring of disease control and eradica-
tion programmes. Both the OAU/-
IBAR and OIE can now look forward
to receiving reliable and routine reports
on the prevalence of the major animal
diseases and the progress of control
and eradication of these diseases from
the majority of countries within the
region, based on quality assured ELISA
data.

Animal Production and Health Section,
Jomt FAO/IAEA Division, P.O. Box
100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria.

A new newsletter on a tropical animal
disease has been launched recently.
The first issue of the DERMATOPHI-
LOSIS NEWSLETTER was produced
in November, 1994, by a team of edi-
tors at the Royal Veterinary College
(UK) and CIRAD-EMVT in France.
Research efforts on dermatophilosis
are currently conducted by groups in
Africa, including Madagascar, Europe,
the Caribbean and Australia. The Edi-
tors state that: \'Renewed interest in the
disease and recent progress in the
understanding of its pathogenesis and
methods for its control have made the
need for rapid communication between
researchers very apparent\'. The editors
further indicate that: \'The aims aue to
meet that need, at least in part, by
providing a forum for discussion of new
ideas and results\'.

The publication of this Newsletter is
sponsored by a STD-3 programme of
the European Union.

The lay-out of the DERMATOPHILO-
SIS NEWSLETTER resembles that of
the successful COWDRIA NEWSLET-
TER produced by CIRAD-EMVT. The
first issue of the Newsletter contains a
report and abstracts of the dermatophi-
losis-related presentations at the 1993
meeting of the American Society for
Tropical Veterinary Medicine held in
Guadeloupe. Furthermore it includes

Certainly the DERMATOPHILOSIS
NEWSLETTER is a valuable source of
information for those working with
livestock in Africa and it can serve as a
useful medium for exchsuige of ideas
and results. However, - as editors of
EQUATOR we speak from expe-
rience - it is very important that those
interested in the subject communicate
any interesting information to the edi-
tors of the Newsletter. So, if you have
£uiy contributions to make on the sub-
ject or if you are interested to receive
the DERMATOPHILOSIS NEWS-
LETTER (free of charge) you can
write to: Dermatophilosis Newsletter
Editorial Office, Dermatology Unit,
Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead
Lane, North Mymms, Herts. AL9 7TA,
United Kingdom.

On 21 September, 1994, after several
years of preparation, the International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
was created based on the achievements
of the International Laboratory for
Research on Animal Diseases
(ILRAD) in Nairobi (Kenya) and the
International Livestock Centre for
Africa (ILCA) which had its head
office in Addis Abeba in Ethiopia. By
the creation of ILRI both ILRAD and

ILCA ceased to exist as separate insti-
tutions and the CGIAR (Consultative
Group on International Agricultural
Research) has now one institute res-
ponsible to undertake research on
global constraints to livestock produc-
tivity. At the foundation ceremony in
Berne, Switzerland, Dr. Robert W.
Herdt of the Rockefeller Foundation
formulated the mission of ILRI as
follows: \'To improve the well-being of
poor people in the developing world by
increasing the knowledge of animal
agriculture. It wiU be a centre dedi-
cated to meeting farmers\' social and
economic needs for animal agriculture,
with a strong base in production sys-
tems, strong programmes to improve
feed resources and a strong programme
of disease research\'. The research pro-
gramme of ILRI will span a full spec-
trum of research , from strategic work
to reveal the molecular physiology of
immune responses to disease pathogens
in farm animals, to socio-economic
studies to determine the constraints
farmers face in adopting new technol-
ogies in livestock production.

The formation of a single institute for
animal research can not be seen separ-
ate from the declining donor funding
for ILRAD and ILCA over the last
years. However, as Dr. A.R. Gray,
former Director General of ILRAD
writes in the foreword of the ILRAD
1993/4 Annual Report: \'The installa-
tion of a new Chairman of the CGIAR
(Mr. Ismail Serageldin), whose support
of global efforts to increase food secu-

rity and future food supplies, is incisive
as well as impassioned will, we hope,
persuade donors to reverse the recent
fall in support for international agricul-
tural research\'.

From 1 January, 1995 Dr. Hank Fitz-
hugh, the former Director General of
ILCA, is the Director General of ILRI.

On 8 August, 1994, during the EAVPT
congress in Edinburgh the first infor-
mal discussions took place concerning
the estabUshment of the AVC - Asso-
ciation of Veterinary Consultants. Re-
presentatives from the UK, France and
Belgium were present at this meeting.
Veterinarians performing the following
duties could apply for membership: ad-
visors to the pharmaceutical industry,
advisors on animal health programmes
and those advising on quaUty matters in
the food industry. The formal estabhsh-
ment of the Association is Ukely to take
place during the IBC Symposium \'In-
ternational Harmonization for Veteri-
nary Medicines\' on 26-27 January, 1995
in the Hotel Metropole in Brussels
(Belgium). The contact person for the
Netherlands is Dr. Christiaan Folkers,
Animal Health Industry Consultancy,
Burgemeester van Hellenberg Hubar-
laan 5, 1217 U HUversum (Tel. and
telefax: 31.35.243200).

The green revolution can point to several successes in the crop sector, but major
breakthroughs in the field of animal production are still lacking. In South East
Asia national targets for animal production are far from being realized. The
contribution in the form of animal products must come from the small farmers,
because it is estimated that approximately 76-95% of the different animal species
populations are owned by small farmers on farms with an average size of 1 - 2 ha.
In sub-Saharan Africa the production of Uvestock in terms of meat and milk is still
one of the lowest of the world, despite large investments in animal production
projects. Here 71 percent of the population lives in rural areas, of which 30
percent are classified as extremely poor. It is assumed that the animal production
is largely in the hands of smallholders.

In order to increase production it is essential to develop methodologies which
clearly pin point the needs and constraints of the small farmer, as in the past too
much emphasis has been placed on large enterprises.

An unportant reason for the low
impact of new technologies could be
that the interactions of livestock with
socio-economic and physical environ-
ments have not been properly under-
stood. Animal scientists, in contrast to
crop scientists, have lagged behind in
using farming system research as a tool
and are still very much disciplinary
oriented. As a consequence this has
hampered a proper quot;diagnosesquot; of the
constraints and needs of the small
farmer and the apphcation of the ne-
cessary quot;treatmentsquot;. On the contrary,
most of the designs and improvements
are science but not demand driven and
often quite inappropriate to the needs
of the small farmer.

found on a farm, in a population or a
region is just starting.
The central idea of farming system
research (FSR) is that one must under-
stand a system following a strict quot;clini-
cal examinationquot; before one can influ-
ence it in a predictable manner.

Farmers must be more closely involved
in this research, in what has been
called Farmer Participatory Research.
However, the farmer is not a scientist
and what he perceives as quot;normalquot;,
such as poor performance, slow growth
rate or extended breeding cycles, will
be regarded as abnormal by the
scientist. Even when a proper diagnosis
of the problems has been made, tech-
nology transfer to Uvestock small
holders is fraught with difficulties.

breed that needs to be
conserved (photo: Paling)
lysis of livestock activities, data must be
collected which can be used in models.
Changes over time, whereby through
population pressure the number of
livestock diminishes, can so be quan-
tified. Herd health programmes,
although often aiming at a few parame-
ters e.g. reproduction, calf mortality,
etc., are also starting in developing
countries. Their role on small farms in
Asia and Africa will be limited.
By combining epidemiological and
economic data an assessment was made
of the economic impact of theileriosis
and its control. The multipurpose use
of cattle, the lack of reUable data, the
estimation of the value of manure and
draught power, makes such a
cost/benefit analysis often difficult.
Interactive Multiple Goal Linear Pro-
gramming as part of a FSR can be
used as an important tool to set the
research agenda, whereby it aims at a
more efficient use of usually scarce
resources. Priority setting is important,
but very difficult. A technical principle
may be sound, e.g. urea treatment, but
whether it is economically attractive
depends upon the farming system.
The tendency to focus on infectious
diseases at the detriment of non-in-
fectious and production diseases, is
another example of wrong priorities.
The observation that the output of ani-
mal products per animal health worker
has declined in the eighties, is another
indication that the priorities have not
been set properly. In general livestock
production has not received the prior-
ity, which it should deserve based on its
contribution to rural development.
Some elements of the multidimensional
matrix of factors which are important
in farming systems will be looked at in
more detail.

The usual classification into infectious
and non-infectious diseases does not
contribute greatly to decision making in
developing strategies for improvements
in animal health. A more useful classi-
fication has been used by Winrock ^ in
its constraint analysis of animal agricul-
ture in sub-Saharan Africa. This classi-
fication can be summarized as follows.

Diseases that are independent of eco-
zones or production systems and cause
high mortahties and severe economic
loss e.g. rinderpest. The technical sol-
utions are largely known, although
there is a need for (multivalent)
thermostable vaccines. Socio-economic
constraints like diagnosis, data collec-
tion, drug delivery and (mis)use of
drugs are still important.

Diseases that are mainly vector trans-
mitted. Their presence and severity is
often ecozone dependent due to the
environmental requirements of their
insect vectors e.g. tick borne diseases.
They are partly independent of the
production system and partly depend-
ent, e.g. in intensive dairy production
with exotic animals.

Diseases that are largely independent
of the ecozone but their importance
increases as production systems are
intensified. They cause low mortality
except under neo-nates. They are
multifactorial and solutions are based
on the application of known technical
solutions.

Proper data collection is essential for
all three groups of diseases. The lack
of suitable comprehensive information
on which to base priorities, planning
and monitoring of the activities of
livestock services is a major constraint
on the effective implementation of such
services. Although, numerous countries
are actively engaged in collecting data
at diagnostic centres. Livestock services
must continuously assess and rank
priorities for male and female farmers,
clearly identify problems and categorize
priorities into those for which solutions
are already available and those that
require further research. A link with
socio-economic benefits is thereby
essential otherwise the diagnostic
centres will remain just centres for data
collection.

Identification of agricultural production
systems in which livestock is important,
is another analytical task in FSR. Win-
rock identifies the following production
systems:

-nbsp;Livestock based systems with pas-
toral or sedentary cattle found in
Latin America, Australia and Africa
as extensive ranching or intensive
grazing on small and medium sized
farms.

-nbsp;Mixed farms with crop and cattle
and small ruminants. Crops are
either millet and sorghum (Africa),
wheat and clover (North Africa and
West Asia), maize (sub-Saharan
Africa, Latin America) or wheat
(South Asia).

-nbsp;Mixed farms with buffalo and cattle.
Crops are rice, roots and tubers
(Asia).

These production systems take place in
different agro-ecological zones. Win-
rock distinguish 5 zones, based on
rainfall, plant growing days and the so
called highlands with temperatures less
than 2Q°c. If agro-ecological zones,
identified constraints and livestock
systems are put together in a matrix,
different opportunities for solutions
exist. A few of these will be worked out
in more detail.

The development of layman friendly
diagnostic tools at the side of the ani-
mal and the producer is one prerequi-
site. This does not only include tests for
the presence of antigens or antibodies,
but also for hormones e.g. progeste-
rone and other body proteins, like
metabolic markers in order to identify
the consequences of sub-optimal min-
eral intake before productivity declines.

In the field of animal health there is
also a need for thermostable multiva-
lent vaccines.

Post-harvest handling of meat and milk
with all its veterinary public health
aspects is an essential research compo-
nent if the smallholder wants to pro-
duce for the market.

Early identification of disease resis-
tance and genes responsible for them is
another research topic. Genetic resis-
tance will reduce the need for vaccina-
tion and/or chemotherapeutic treat-
ment. Artificial insemination and
embryo transfer can be used to amplify
valuable germ plasma.

In the field of animal nutrition, many
attempts have been made to improve
the quality of straw by urea treatment.

Genetic manipulation of plants to
increase the nutritive value of crop
residues is slowly gaining ground
amongst plant breeders. Genetic modi-
fication of rumenal microflora to
enhance food digestibihty and reduce
methane production is another
approach. A limiting factor is that we
know very little about the mechanisms
that regulate feed intake in ruminants.

Other opportunities like natural
resources management and/or socio-
economic factors are just as important
as the ones mentioned above, but fall
not within the scope of this paper.

(Department of Animal Production
Systems, Agricultural University, P.O.
Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, the
Netherlands).

The section RECENT PUBLICATIONS is included in the EngUsh issues of EQUATOR. Scientific publications of the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and other research institutes in the Netherlands, relevant to livestock production and health
in the tropics as well as titles of papers by Dutch veterinary scientists working on animal health and production topics in
relation to developing countries, will be included. Please inform the editor of your pubhcations so we can bring them to the
attention of the readers of EQUATOR. For reprints contact the authors directly, their addresses can be obtained from the
editorial office (Office for International Cooperation, P.O. Box 80.163, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands). Copies of the
quot;Abstracts of the 5quot;* symposium on Tropical Animal Health and Production: AppUcation of Biotechnologyquot; can also be
obtained from this office.

Cadman, H.F., Kelly, P.J., Zhou, R., Davelaar, F. and Mason, P.R. (1994). A serosurvey using enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay for antibodies against poultry pathogens in ostriches (Struthio camelus) from Zimbabwe. Avian Diseases 38: 621-
625.

Balogh, K. de, Bbalo, G.C., Böhm, R., Chizyuka, H.G.B., Kigan, B., Komba, G.L., Muyoyeta, P.M., Tuchih, L.M., Turnbull,
P.C.B., Devos, V. and Roberts, D.H. (1994). Anthrax control and research with special reference to national program-
development in Africa - Memorandum from a WHO meeting. Bulletin of the World Health Orpanizafinn 72: 13-22.

Balogh, K.K.I.M. de, Wandeler, A.I. and Meslin, F.X. (1993). A dog ecology study in urban and semirural areas of Zambia.
Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinarv Research 60: 437-443.

Davelaar, F.G. and Hill, F.W.G. (1993). Production d\'anticorps chez les jeunes poulets de chair (broilers) en response a une
vaccination contre Mycoplasma gallisepticum. Proceedings of the Rencontres Internationales ^ Production Avicole 1993.
Nantes, 2 Juin, 1993, pp. 31-37.

Kelly, P.J., Chitauro, D., Rohde, C., Rukwava, J, Majok, A., Davelaar, F. and Mason, P.R. (1994). Diseases and management
of backyard chicken flocks in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. Avian Disea^ 38: 626-629.

Dwinger, R.H., Capella, E., Perez, E., Baaijen, M. and Müller, E. (1994). Application of a computerized herd management
and production control program in Costa Rica. Tropical Agriculture CTrinidad) 71: 74-76.

Klink, E.G.M. van (1994). Aspects of productivitv of traditionally m^aged BMOt^ cattk jn the
PhD thesis, Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, pp. 227.

Zwart, D. (1994). Problems for livestock smallholders in the tropics. In: Abstracts of the svmposium on Tropical Animal
Health md Production: Application of Biotechnologv. Eds. R.W. Paling and J.HA. de Gooijer, Utrecht, 30 September,
1994, Utrecht University, pp. 7-12.

Barbet, A.F., Semu, S.M., Chigagure, N., Kelly, P.J., Jongejan, J. and Mahan, S.M. (1994). Size variation of the major
immunodominant protein of Cowdria ruminantium. Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology 1: 744-746.

Mahan, S.M., McGuire, T.C., Semu, S.M., Bowie, M.V., Jongejan, F., Rurangirwa, F.R. and Barbet, A.F. (1994). Molecular
cloning of a gene encoding the immunogenic 21 kDa protein of Cowdria ruminantium. Microbiology 140: 2135-2142.

Oliveira, C. d\', Kok, J.B. de, Weide, M. van der, Shiels, B.R., Tait, A., Cornelissen, A.W.CA, and Jongejan, F. (1994).
Recombinant vaccine development and improved diagnostic methods for tropical theileriosis (Theileria annulata
infection). In: Abstracts of Ihe ^ symposium on Tropical Animal Health and Production: Application rf Biotechnology.
Eds. R.W. Paling and J.HA. de Gooijer, Utrecht, 30 September, 1994, Utrecht University, pp. 33-38.

Stagg, DA., Bishop, R.P., Shaw, M.K., Wesonga, D., Orinda, G.O., Grootenhuis, J.G., Molyneux, D.H. and Young, A.S.
(1994). Characterization of Theileria parva which infects Waterhuck {Kobus defassa). Parasitology 108: 543-554.

Vliet, A.H.M. van, Mahan, S.M., Martinez, D., Camus, E., Zeijst, BA.M. van der and Jongejan, F. (1994). Development of a
Cowdria ruminantium specific ELISA based on recombinant antigens. In: Abstracts of the 5quot;^ svmposium on Tropical
Animal Health amd Production: Apphcation ^ Biotechnology. Eds. R.W. Paling and J.H.A. de Gooijer, LJtrecht, 30
September, 1994, Utrecht University, pp. 29-32.

Dwinger, R.H., Agyemang, K., Kaufmann, J., Grieve, A.S. and Bah. M.L. (1994). Effects of trypanosome and hehninth
infections on health and production parameters of village N\'Dama cattle in The Gambia. Veterinary Parasitology 54: 353-
365.

Reduth, D., Grootenhuis, J.G., Olubayo, R.O., Muranjan, M., Otieno-Omondi, F.P., Morgan, GA., Brun, R., WiUiams, D.J.L.
and Black, S.J. (1994). African buffalo serum contains novel trypanocidal protein. Journal rf Eukaryotic Microbiology 41:
95-103.

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL COURSE
quot;INTRODUCTION TO HERD
HEALTH AND EPIDEMIOLOGYquot;

The fifth international course quot;Intro-
duction to herd health and epidemio-
logyquot; will be organized from 9 October
to 24 November 1995 at the Depart-
ment of Herd Health and Reproduc-
tion of the Faculty of Veterinary Medi-
cine of Utrecht University. The Office
for International Cooperation organizes
this 7-week post-academic course.

The course is directed towards dairy
cattle and dairy cattle husbandry. The
following subjects will be given attenti-
on:

*nbsp;Introduction to herd health and the
VAMPP-programme for fertility
control of dairy cattle;

*nbsp;fertihty analysis and aspects of re-
production like gynaecology, animal
husbandry, artificial insemination

Besides attending lectures, practicals
and demonstrations, participants will
visit a number of dairy farms in the
service area of the ambulatory clinic of
the Faculty and they will join excursi-
ons to veterinary institutes and/or
health services. Also, the touristic inte-
rest of the participants will not be
forgotten. The course includes 2 days
of excursions to interesting sites in the
Netherliinds.

Following this course, the possibihty ex-
ists to follow more specialized training
on cui individual basis.

The course fee is Dfl. 7,500 excluding
the costs for travel, subsistence, lodging
and medical insurance.

The coordinating bureau requires a
good knowledge of the level of educati-
on and the working conditions of the
candidates for selecting the appropriate
participants for the course. Therefore,
applicants have to send a letter with a
detailed curriculum vitae, stressing aca-
demic and/or professional merits. Fur-
thermore, a certified statement of ap-
proval to participate in the course from
responsible superiors and a declaration
by the granting authority should be
included. Closing date for registration
is 1 August, 1995. For information and
application, please contact the Office
for International Cooperation, Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box
80.163, 3508 TD Utrecht, the Nether-
lands (Tel.: 31.30-532116, telefax:
31.30-531815, E.mail: bic@bic.dgk.-
ruu.nl).

September, 1995 - June, 1996.
Intemational MSc course in Biomedical
Research Development. Organized by: Royal
Tropical Institute and University of Amster-
dam. The course is aimed at providing
researchers, especially those from or working
in developing countries, with improved
knowledge of and skills in new developments
in biomedical techniques, planning and per-
forming of research and assessment of
results. Course programme; Module 1: Intro-
duction and review; Module 2: Basic
research methods and tools; Module 3:
Design and execution of research projects;
Module 4; Advanced methods: research
methodology and tools; Module 5: Individual
project. Course fee: Dfl. 25,500. Closing date
for submission of preliminary application
form: 15 February, 1995. Information and
application: Dr. E.P. Wright, Faculty of Me-
dicine, University of Amsterdam, Meiburg-
dreef 15, 1105 AZ Amsterdam (Telefa;?:
31.20.6912401).

World Veterinaiy Congress. XXV Congress
of the World Veterinary Association and XX
Congress of the World Small Animal Veteri-
nary Association. Theme: Advancing Veteri-
nary Profession in a Changing World. For
inquiries regarding a request for the first
announcement and registration procedures
contact: The Secretariat WVC, c/o Sankei
Convention, Sankei Building lOF, 1-7-2,
Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100 (Tel.:
81.3.32732084, telefax: 81.3.32732439).

8quot;* Intemational Conference of Institutes of
Tropical Veterinaiy Medicine: Livestock
production and diseases in the tropics: Live-
stock production and human welfare. Orga-
nized by: Association of Institutions of tropi-
cal Veterinary Medicine (AITVM). Program-
ma: Plenary sessions with papers of invited
speakers and six workshops introduced by
brief communications and posters on: Peri-
urban livestock production; Epidemiology

and socio-economics in different livestock
systems; Impact of livestock on the environ-
ment; Veterinary public health in different
livestock systems; The role of women in
animal husbandry and Target oriented trai-
ning needs, demands and facilities in less
developed countries. For registration and
submission of brief communications: Prof.
Dr. D. Mehlitz, Institute for Parasitology
and Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Free Uni-
versity of Berlin, Koeningsweg, 14163 Berlin.

9 October - 24 November, 1995.
5quot; Intemational Course quot;Introduction to
Herd Health and Epidemiologyquot;. Organized
by the Office for Intemational Cooperation
and the Department of Herd Health an^
Reproduction of the Faculty of Veterinaiy
Medicine. Programme: See under quot;BIC
Newsquot;. Course fee: Dfl. 7,500,-. Closing date
for registration 1 August, 1995. Information
and registration: Office for International
Cooperation, P.O. Box 80.163, 3508 TD
Utrecht (Tel.: 31.30532116, telefax:
31.30.531815, E-mail bic@bic.dgk.ruu.nl).

31 March - 2 April, 1995
5* Intemational Symposium on: Pathology of
Reptiles and Amphibians. Subject: recent
developments in the broad area of patholo-
gical aspects of reptiles and amphibians.
Preliminary observations are welcomed.
Location: AVIFAUNA, Dutch National Bird
Park in Alphen aan de Rijn. Congress fee:
after 1quot; February, 1995: DM 375. Corres-
pondence: Prof. Dr. P. Zwart, Burg. v.d.
Weijerstraat 16, 3981 EK Bunnik (Tel.: 31-
.3405.61644, telefax: 31.3405.67262).

1 April, 1995 - 31 June, 1996.
Master course in Tropical Veterinary Epide-
miology. Postgraduate training for veterinari-
ans with a background in veterinary epide-
miology and/or preventive medicine in a
(sub)tropical country. Training in modem
concepts of population medicine aims at im-
proving skills in handling complex disease
problems and in implementing appropriate
action to improve the health status of animal
populations. Information: Free University of
Berlin, Postgraduate Studies in Tropical
Veterinary Medicine, Augustrasse 37, 12203
Berlin (Tel.: 49.30.8348413, telefax: 49.-
30.8341908).

Short term courses in Tropical Veterinary
Epidemiology. Module I (18 April - 5 May,
1995): Introduction to computers and orien-
tation to statistics. Module II (8 May - 2
June, 1995): Introduction to epidemiology
and applied statistics. Module III (3 - 28
July, 1995): Quantitative epidemiology and
advanced medical statistics for epidemiology.
Information: Free University of Berlin, Post-
graduate Studies in Tropical Veterinary
Medicine, Augustrasse 37, 12203 Berlin (Tel:
49.30.8348413, telefax: 49.30.8341908).

3quot;^ Biennial meeting of the Society for Tropi-
cal Veterinary Medicine (STVM). Symposia:
(1) Vector-bome pathogens: challenges for
the 21\'* century; (2) Intemational trade and
animal diseases; and (3) General sessions:
Contributed papers on Tropical veterinary
medicine. Registration fee us$ 250.00. Regis-
tration and information: Dr. J. A. House,
STVM-95 Chairman, USDA Aphis Faddl,
Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA (Tel.:
1.516.3232500 ext. 350, telefax: 1.516.323-
2798, E-mail a349jhouse@attmail.com).

11 June - 8 or 22 July, 1995.
44quot;\'\' Intemational course on rural extension.
\'Core Course\' programme of 3 weeks: Intro-
duction to group communication skills and
Strategic diagnosis of agricultural knowledge
systems and 1 week Extension management.
A 6 week course until 22 July, 1995 includes
the 3 week core course programme and a 3
week specialization in one of the following
subjects: Management of extension pro-
grammes; Training for trainei-s of extension
workers or Research-extension-farmer link-
ages. Course fee: Dfl. 5,000 for the 4-week
course and Dfl. 9,000 for the 6 week
course. Closing date: 20 March, 1995. Infor-
mation and registration: Intemational Agri-
cultural Centre (lAC), P.O. Box 88, 6700 AB
Wageningen (Tel.: 31.8370.90111, telefax:
31.8370.18552).

2°^ Course on: Artificial insemination in pigs.
Subjects: Collection of semen; Evaluation
and processing of semen in the laboratory;
Insemination and sow production control;
Organization of an AI station and Selection
of breeding stock. Fees including board and
lodging: 6,500. Information: IPC Livestock
Bameveld College, Dep. of Intemational
Studies and Cooperation Programmes, P.O.
Box 64, 3770 AB Bameveld (Tel.: 31.3420.-
14881, telefax: 31.3420.92813).

Intensive course on Laboratory Animal
Science. Objective of the course: to present
basic facts and principles that are essential
for the humane use of animals and for the
quality of research. Some subjects: gnotobio-
logy; animal welfare, euthanasia; statistics;
biology and husbandry of laboratory ani-
mals; laboratory animal science databases
(PREX); protocols for experiments; behav-
iour, housing, stress and well being; anaes-
thesia; genetic standardization; N.M.R. facil-
ity; microsurgery; animal handling; alterna-
tives to animal experiments; ethics; nutrition;
legislation and regulations and practical
training. Fees: course fee Dfl. 2,550; board
and lodging Dfl. 1,950. Closing date: 1 May,
1995. Information and registration: Mrs. M.
Albers, Dep. of Laboratory Animal Science,
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box
80.166, 3508 TD Utrecht (Tel.: 31.30.-
532033, telefax: 31.30.537997).

23\'\' Intemational course on dairy farming in
rural development. Course programme:
Introduction; Dairy development; Farming
systems; Statistics; Economics and agricul-
tural credit; Breeding; Pasture production;
Nutrition and feeding: Animal health; Re-
production and AI, Extension and case
studies. Course fee: Dfl. 4,500. Closing date:
1 May, 1995. Information and registration:
Intemational Agricultural Centre (lAC),
P.O. Box 88, 6700 AB Wageningen (Tel.:
31.8370.90111, telefax: 31.8370.18552).

21 August, 1995 - 6 June, 1996,
Intemational course on quot;Tropical Animal
Production. Organized by: Larenstein Inter-
national Agricultural College Deventer.
Entry requirements: Diploma or degree in
Animal Science and minimal 5 years relevant
professional experience. Programme: Inte-
grated approach to feed production, nutri-
tion and reproduction of farm animals; ma-
nagement of farms and farm units; farm eco-
nomics and extension approaches; farming
systems analysis; rapid rural appraisal and an
intemational excursion. The approach is
problem-oriented to enhance the problem
solving capacity of the participants. Tuition
fee: Dfl. 9,675; Board and lodging:
Dfl.17,000. Information and registration:
Registry Larenstein lA.C., P.O. Box 7, 7400
DA Deventer (Tel.: 31.5700.84654, telefax:
31.5700.84608).

23 August 1995 - 22 February, 1996.
25°quot; Intemational course on poultry husban-
dry and 25^ International course on pig hus-
bandry. These courses will run at the same
time. Following these courses participation is
possible in the 18\' International animal feed
training programme, which runs from 25 Fe-
bruary to 24 May, 1996. Direct entry in this
last course is also possible. Fees including
board and lodging: Poultry course: Dfl
24,500; Pig course: Dfl. 24,500, Feed course;
Dfl. 12,000 or 14,500 (direct entry). Closing
date: 1 May, 1995. Information: IPC Live-
stock Bameveld College, Dep. of Interna-
tional Studies and Cooperation Programmes,
P.O. Box 64, 3770 AB Bameveld (Tel.: 31.-
3420.14881, telefax: 31.3420.92813).

28 August -1 September, 1995.
The Second intemational conference on tick-
bome pathogens at the host-vector interface
(THOI); Tick-host-pathogen interactions: A
global perspective. Organized by: Onderste-
poort Veterinary Institute and Medical Uni-
versity of South Africa. The goal of the
conference is to create a forum to review the
current status on the biology and ecology of
ticks and tick-borne animal pathogens, espe-
cially those of Africa. A 4-day post confe-
rence workshop on ticks and tick-bome dis-
ease identification and diagnostics is envis-
aged at Onderstepoort under the auspices of
the Office International des epizooties. In-
formation and registration: Ms. T. Wilhelmi,
Onderstepoort Veterinaiy Institute, Private
Bag X05, Onderstepoort 0110, Rep. of South
Africa (Tel. 27.12.5299329, telefax: 27-
.12.556573, E-mail: tamara@moon.ovi.ac.za).

EQUATOR is een uitgave van
het Bureau Internationale
Contacten van de Faculteit
Diergeneeskunde

J.HA. de Gooijer
(eindredacteur)
Drs. M.F.M. Langelaar
Dr. R.W. Pahng
(hoofdredacteur)
Dr. P.R. van Weeren

Bureau Internationale Contacten
Faculteit Diergeneeskunde
Postbus 80.163
3508 TD UTRECHT

Opzeggingen of naam- en/of
adreswijzigingen aangeven op de
adresband en deze retourneren
aan het redactie-adres.

In deze editie van EQUATOR ligt het
accent op het tweede gedeelte van het
dierlijke-produktieproces, namelijk de
behandehng en verwerking van het
geslachte dier. Een belangrijk aspect
van de dierlijke produktie dat vaak te
weinig onder de aandacht komt van de
veehouders en hun voorhchters, zoals
de dierenartsen. Het betrekken van de
veehouder bij het gehele produktie-
proces is een relatief nieuwe ontwikke-
ling die onderdeel uitmaakt van de in
Nederland gestarte integrale ketenbe-
waking.

Voor deze gelegenheid laten we pro-
fessor B. Krol aan het woord. Als eme-
ritus hoogleraar Technologie van de
voedingsmiddelen van dierlijke oor-
sprong bij de Faculteit Diergeneeskun-
de en voormalig hoofd van de afdeUng
Nederlands Centrum voor Vleestechno-
logie bij CIVO-TNO in Zeist heeft
professor Krol een uitgebreide ervaring
op het gebied van de be- en verwerking
van vlees en vis en de keuring van vlees
en vleeswaren. Deze ervaring strekt
zich uit van Ghana tot Indonesië. Prof.
Krol is in een uitstekende positie om
verschillen en overeenkomsten te zien
tussen landen en continenten en te
analyseren welke verwerkings- of con-
serveringsmethoden wel of niet met
succes geïntroduceerd kunnen worden.
Ook over de huidige discussie in Ne-
derland over de besteding en de hoogte
van gelden voor ontwikkelingssamen-
werking heeft hij een uitgesproken
mening. Hij is een van de mensen die
vindt dat het niet aangaat te ruzieën
over een besteding van 0,8 of 0,7 pro-
cent van het bruto nationaal produkt
aan ontwikkeUngshulp terwijl er nog
zoveel agrarische produktie verloren
gaat en er nog zoveel mensen zijn die
te weinig voedsel krijgen. Het is een
quot;mustquot; om door te gaan. Als ik zie wat
wij hier allemaal verspillen en wat wij
ons kunnen permitteren, dan vind ik het
gewoon absurd dat we hier nog zo lang
over praten. Aldus Prof. Krol tijdens het
interview.

Bij de praktische uitwerking van profes-
sor Krol\'s ideeën is de vakgroep Voe-
dingsmiddelen van Dierlijke Oorsprong
van de Faculteit Diergeneeskunde nauw
betrokken. Zo\'n 10 jaar is samen met
de Landbouwuniversiteit Wageningen
een project uitgevoerd bij de landbouw-
faculteit van de universiteit van Benin
in West Afrika, waar een nieuwe afstu-
deerrichting \'Agro Nutrition\' werd
opgezet. Dr. Ir. J.H. Houben, de pro-
jectver antwoordelijke uit Utrecht be-
richt over het verloop en de resultaten
van dit project.

Behalve docenten en onderzoekers van
de Faculteit Diergeneeskunde die re-
gelmatig op andere plaatsen van de
globe vertoeven, verruimen ook studen-
ten hun blik door een stage in een
tropisch land. Dit moge blijken uit de
verhalen in de rubriek \'Studentenstages
in de tropen\'. In deze aflevering van
EQUATOR beschrijft Henk Antonis
hoe het hem verging in Ecuador.

Tenslotte kondigen wij met plezier een
uitbreiding van de redactie aan. Dr.
René van Weeren, medewerker bij de
Vakgroep Algemene Heelkunde en
Heelkunde der Grote Huisdieren, komt
onze redactie versterken. René heeft
niet alleen gekende en misschien nog
ongekende auteurstalenten, hij is ook
langere tijd actief geweest in Afrika en
Midden Amerika.

In mei 1994 begon postdoctoraalstudent diergeneeskunde Henk Antonis al tijdens
het volgen van het keuze-coschap Tropencursus te zoeken naar mogelijkheden om
een stage in de tropen te doen. Al gauw viel zijn keuze op Ecuador. Hij zou ter
plaatse een onderzoekje gaan doen naar de rol van leverbot-infecties bij runderen.
Dr. Egbert van der Kuip, projectleider van het Proyecto Modelo de Desarollo
Lechero Integral in Canar tot augustus 1994, had al in 1993 de aanzet tot dit
onderzoek gegeven (zie ook EQUATOR van november 1994, Jaargang 6, no.6).
Na een intensieve voorbereiding bij de Faculteit Diergeneeskunde en het ID-DLO
in Lelystad vertrok Henk Antonis al eind juli 1994 richting Zuid Amerika met een
koffer vol reagentia, buisjes en titratieplaten. Hieronder volgt een kort verslag van
zijn wederwaardigheden ter plaatse.

Op de vliegtuigtrap, toen de tropische
hitte als de spreekwoordelijke klamme
deken op me viel, realiseerde ik me dat
het nu echt begonnen was. Dat leverde
een gevoel van opwinding en onrust op.
Opwinding omdat alles nieuw en span-
nend was, onrust omdat een zeer korte
en hectisch verlopen voorbereidingstijd
misschien onvoldoende zou blijken. Ik
stond aan het begin van een stagepe-
riode van vijf maanden, waarin ik zou
werken voor het Proyecto Modelo de
Desarollo Lechero Integral in Canar,
een streek die gelegen is op meer dan
3000 meter hoogte in de Andes. Ik zou
gaan wonen in Cuenca, een stad met
200.000 inwoners.

Het project kent vijf participanten,
twee Ecuadoriaanse organisaties, het
Wereldvoedselprogramma en de Voed-
sel en Landbouw Organisatie van de
Verenigde Naties en de Nederlandse
regering. Het project heeft als belang-
rijkste doel het bevorderen van de
melkveeteelt.

De achtergrond van mijn stage

Mijn opdracht was om een goede me-
thode te vinden om onder de heersen-
de omstandigheden leverbot-infecties te
diagnostiseren bij runderen en om in
kaart te brengen hoe groot het lever-
botprobleem in het projectgebied is.
Daarnaast wilde ik voor mezelf uitzoe-
ken of ik geschikt zou zijn voor een
toekomstige baan in de tropen.
Interesse in ontwikkelingswerk had ik

al heel lang. Ook had ik al vele verha-
len van ex-tropengangers gehoord en
gelezen. Deze verhalen deden mijn
interesse niet verminderen, maar zij
voedden wel steeds meer de twijfel of
ik in een baan bij een ontwikkelingssa-
menwerkingsproject zou kunnen aar-
den. De bureaucratie, de trage besluit-
vorming, de commissies en de rappor-
ten waarover ik hoorde en die ik las,
deden mij uiteindelijk met een hoofd
vol vooroordelen naar Ecuador vertrek-
ken. En ik heb ze bijna allemaal beves-
tigd gekregen!! Het feit dat ik toch
terug kijk op een fantastische periode
is vooral vanwege de hartelijkheid,
gastvrijheid en humor van de Ecuado-
rianen, maar heeft denk ik ook te ma-
ken met mijn, soms krampachtig volge-
houden, voornemen me niet te ergeren
of af te zetten en mijn klus zo goed
mogelijk te klaren.

Het onderzoek heb ik uitgevoerd met
Jorge Vergara, een dertigjarige student
diergeneeskunde. Jorge wilde dit on-
derzoek gebruiken voor zijn afstudeer-
scriptie, zijn laatste obstakel op weg
naar de doctorstitel en het afstuderen
als dierenarts.

De eerste drie weken van het onder-
zoek hebben we bloed- en mestmon-
sters verzameld en sectie van de levers
gedaan op het slachthuis in Cuenca.
Dit om een idee te krijgen omtrent de
mogelijkheden om met de uit Neder-
land meegebrachte serologische testen
en parasitologische diagnostische me-
thoden onder Ecuadoriaanse omstan-
digheden leverbot aan te tonen. Daarna
gingen we dagelijks met een van de
vier bij het project werkzame dierenart-
sen het veld in om bloedmonsters.

Guayaquil, dinsdag 27 december, 09:00
uur

Opnieuw sta ik in de tropische hitte op
de vUegtuigtrap. Nu met een tas en een
hoofd vol herinneringen aan vele goede
vrienden en een fantastische tijd, en
met een vaag antwoord op mijn per-
soonlijke vraag: quot;Ik acht mezelf ge-
schikt voor een baan in de tropen, mits

mestmonsters en gegevens over de
koeien en de bedrij^es te verzamelen.
Zo kwam ik in aanraking met arme
boeren die in dit gebied vaak van Indi-
aanse oorsprong zijn. Meestal kregen
we eerst een maaltijd aangeboden,
maar altijd enkele borrels tegen de
koude of de warmte, afhankelijk van de
weersomstandigheden. Eenmaal vroeg
een boer me bij een dergeüjke gelegen-
heid of ik een Yankee was. Toen ik dat
ontkende, feliciteerde hij me daarmee,
want hij had enkele dagen geleden
gehoord dat de Yankees op de maan
waren geweest. En een volk dat men-
sen naar de maan stuurde, moest in
zijn ogen wel krankzinnig zijn.
Groot was mijn voldoening als ik een
enkele keer, als tegenprestatie voor hun
medewerking en de genoten gastvrij-
heid, iets voor hun dieren kon beteke-
nen.

Ook heb ik veel plezier beleefd aan de
samenwerking met de dierenartsen van
het project. Vele voor de dagelijkse
Nederlandse praktijk eenvoudige hulp-
middelen zijn in Ecuador niet beschik-
baar. Dankzij de hulp van een smid
bezit het project nu onder andere stuw-
kettinkjes, een mondsperder en een
magneetschieter plus kooimagneten
(voor de behandeling van het zoge-
naamde \'scherp in\', scherpe metalen
voorwerpen die zich in de voormagen
van het rund kunnen bevinden red.).
Voor mijn vertrek benauwde het me
dat ik een belangrijk deel van mijn
verblijf alleen zou wonen en als enige
buitenlander op het project zou wer-
ken. Dit bleek al snel ongegronde
angst. De sfeer op het project was
uiterst plezierig. Ik ontving veel hulp bij
het werk, het verbeteren van mijn
Spaans en tal van andere zaken. Al snel
had ik een actief sociaal leven, waar
behalve Ecuadorianen ook de beschei-
den Nederlandse gemeenschap in Cu-
enca deel van uit maakte.

In 1984 is er een samenwerkingsverband tot stand gekomen tussen enerzijds de
Université Nationale du Bénin (UNB) en anderzijds de afdeling Humane Voeding
van de Landbouwuniversiteit Wageningen (LUW) en de vakgroep Voedingsmidde-
len van Dierlijke Oorsprong van de Faculteit Diergeneeskunde van de Universiteit
Utrecht (UU). Het voornaamste doel was het helpen oprichten en consolideren
van een nieuwe specialisatie: Voeding en Levensmiddelentechnologie biimen de
landbouwkundige ingenieursopleiding aan de UBN in Cotonou, Benin. Het
project, dat ondersteund werd door het Directoraat Generaal Internationale
Samenwerking (DGIS) van het Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken is onlangs
afgesloten. Slechts een aantal zaken wordt nog afgerond in het kader van een
zogenaamd Après-projet. Een goede gelegenheid om de Utrechtse project
verantwoordelijke Dr. Ir. Jacques Houben, die sinds de start verbonden is geweest
aan dit project, te vragen verslag te doen van deze succesvolle samenwerking
tussen de Universiteiten Benin, Utrecht en Wageningen.

Benin (het voormalige Dahomey) aan
de Afrikaanse westkust, werd in 1960
zelfstandig en koos in 1974 een marxis-
tisch-leninistische koers. Na een woeU-
ge periode van toenemende ontevre-
denheid kwam in 1991 een meerpar-
tijendemocratie tot stand. De totale
oppervlakte van het land bedraagt
112.600 km^ en het herbergt een bevol-
king van ca. 5 miljoen inwoners. Onge-
veer 70% van de bevolking woont op
het platteland; de voornaamste midde-
len van bestaan zijn landbouw en visse-
rij. Er vindt enige export plaats van
katoen, palmolie en cashew-noten.
Veeteelt vindt slechts op beperkte
schaal plaats. Het land bezit weinig
delfstoffen. Benin behoort tot de arm-
ste landen ter wereld. De situatie is er
niet beter op geworden sinds de recen-
te ontkoppeling van de lokale munteen-
heid -de Franc CFA - van de Franse
frank.

Een nieuwe studierichting \'Agro-Nutri-
tion\'

De UNB, de enige universiteit van het
land, werd opgericht in 1970 en telt
diverse faculteiten met thans in totaal
ongeveer 20.000 studenten en 800 staf-
leden. De landbouwfaculteit heeft zo\'n
150 studenten met een jaarlijkse in-
stroom van 30-40. De totale studieduur
is 5 jaar: 3,5 jaar quot;tronc communquot; (een

Er zijn vijf specialisatie-mogelijkheden;
één daarvan is sinds 1984: Voeding en
Levensmiddelentechnologie, of in een
Beninees jasje gestoken: \'Agro-Nutriti-
on\'. In deze nieuwe richting studeren
jaarlijks ongeveer 5 ingenieurs af die
zich door de keuze van het onderwerp
van hun afstudeeronderzoek (inclusief
het schrijven van een these staan hier 9
maanden studietijd voor) profileren in
de richting van de humane voeding of
de levensmiddelentechnologie.

Het oprichten van een duurzame nieu-
we studierichting houdt een veelvoud
aan taken in. Zo was de vakgroep Voe-
dingsmiddelen van Dierlijke Oorsprong,
in casu de sectie Technologie nauw be-
trokken bij en soms de uitvoerder van:

*nbsp;het inrichten en verbeteren van de
infrastructuur van een drietal labo-
ratoria behorende tot de Sectie NSA
(Nutrition et Sciences Agro-ahmen-
taires) van de UNB;

*nbsp;het aanvankelijk verzorgen -en na
het inwerken van een Beninees
staflid- participeren in het onderwijs
op het gebied van de levensmidde-
lenmicrobiologie; en eenzelfde input
op het gebied van de technologie
van voedingsmiddelen van dierlijke
oorsprong;

*nbsp;het helpen opstarten en mede bege-
leiden van een onderzoeksprogram-
ma voor de nieuwe sectie;

* het selecteren en begeleiden van
twee langverbanders \'Levensmidde-
lentechnologie\' (afgestudeerd in
levensmiddelentechnologie aan de
LUW), die respectievelijk voor 5 en
2 jaar in Benin werden gedeta-
cheerd. De eerste langverbander Ir.
W. Hendriks was DGIS-suppletie-
deskundige, de volgende, Ir. M.J.
Edema was in dienst van het project
en aangesteld bij de Universiteit
Utrecht.

Als projectverantwoordelijke vanuit
Utrecht verbleef ik een en soms twee
keer per jaar in Benin. De duur van
mijn missies varieerde van 10-25 dagen.
In de langere periodes verzorgde ik de
jaarlijks practica. De kortere periodes
hadden, afgezien van het geven van
onderwijs en begeleiden van onderzoek,
meer een beleidskarakter. Een tweede
belangrijke persoon vanuit Utrecht
voor het project was de hoofdtechnicus
Michiel Dijkstra, verbonden aan het
Bureau Internationale Contacten van
de Faculteit Diergeneeskunde. Hij
voerde vier ondersteunende missies van
3-7 weken uit naar Benin. Zijn taken
hadden betrekking op advisering bij
aanschaf, reparatie en onderhoud van
laboratoriumapparaten ter plaatse, het
verbeteren van de infra-structuur in de
laboratoria en het trainen van lokale
technici in gebruik, beheer en onder-
houd van apparatuur.

Een derde persoon uit Utrecht die in
dit kader moet worden genoemd is
Prof. Ir. B. Krol. Hij heeft het project
vanuit Nederland mee begeleid en na
een TNO-projectbezoek in Ghana is hij
quot;overgewiptquot; naar Benin tijdens een van
mijn werkbezoeken. Samen hebben we
toen diverse beleidszaken doorgenomen
met de autoriteiten van de UNB en ons
op de hoogte gesteld van de vorderin-
gen van enige internationale visserij- en
visverwerkingsprojecten.
Een niet te verwaarlozen ondersteuning
aan het project werd verder gegeven
door diverse Wageningse studenten
Levensmiddelentechnologie, die gedu-
rende perioden van circa 4 maanden op
stage gingen naar Benin.

In de loop van de tien jaar (het project
liep af op 31 december 1993) werden
alle eerdergenoemde doelstellingen
gerealiseerd. Het opleiden van jonge
stafleden heeft geleid tot een tweetal
proefschriften op levensmiddelengebied
die met succes werden verdedigd; één
in Wageningen, het tweede in Ibadan
(Nigeria). Technici werden bijgeschoold
in Nederland en een bescheiden onder-
zoeksprogramma werd opgestart.
Onderzoeksprojecten van langere duur
hebben betrekking op gefermenteerde
maisprodukten (melkzuurfermentatie),
gefermenteerde legumineusen (schim-
melfermentaties) en traditionele con-
servering van vis en melk (Peulh kaas).
Een poging vanuit Utrecht om finan-
ciële middelen via de Europese Unie te
verkrijgen om een onderzoekssamen-
werking met Benin op te zetten op het
gebied van quot;Aliments de rue (Street
foods)quot; is vooralsnog niet succesvol
verlopen.

faculteit door de Beninese overheid
blijkt niet voldoende om deze instelling
op de lange duur te doen beklijven.
Naarstig wordt daarom gezocht naar
andere bronnen van inkomsten, waar-
aan ook door het project is meege-
holpen. Zo kunnen worden genoemd:
* het jaarlijks organiseren van een
Franstalige internationale bijscho-
lingscursus van 4 weken voor hoger
en middenkader afkomstig uit de
regio, de zogenaamde FINSA cur-
sus, die tot nu toe erg succesvol is
gebleken. Als cursusthema voor de
eerstkomende jaren is gekozen voor
\'Sécurité Alimentaire et Santé Ma-
ternelle et Infantile\', waarin zowel
bijdragen op het gebied van de
voeding als de levensmiddelenweten-
schappen worden geïntegreerd.

*nbsp;het streven om gevorderde land-
bouwstudenten uit de regio te laten
instromen in het Beninese curricu-
lum, hetgeen in variërende mate
blijkt te lukken

*nbsp;het meehelpen oprichten van een
bureau aan de Landbouwfaculteit
voor het aantrekken van contract-
onderzoek.

Op het gebied van de laboratoria van
de sectie NSA wordt overigens reeds
een bescheiden groei bij het uitvoeren
van opdrachten tegen betaling waarge-
nomen.

Une nouvelle filière de formation à la
Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques
de l\'Université Nationale du Benin

Een punt van zorg blijft dat afgestu-
deerden op dit moment nauweüjks of
niet aan een baan binnen de nationale
economie kunnen komen, afgezien van
aanstellingen bij internationale (hulp)-
organisaties.

Vooralsnog blijft ondersteuning, zoals
die vanuit Nederland, onontbeerlijk. Zo
verblijft er nog in het kader van het
Après-projet een Nederlandse langver-
bander in Benin. Zijn taak heeft vooral
betrekking op het assisteren bij het
verbeteren van het algemene manage-
ment en het financiële beheer van de
Landbouwfaculteit. Vanuit Utrecht zijn
voor 1995/1996 nog missies gepland
voor Michiel Dijkstra en mijzelf.

Het geheel overziend kan ik stellen dat
er duidelijk voortgang is geboekt en dat
de toekomst voor de nieuwe studie-
richting -zij het met enige aarzeling-
redelijk optimistisch tegemoet kan
worden gezien.

Mijn eerste kennismaking met de tro-
pen was in Suriname. Het juiste jaar
weet ik niet meer, maar het zal zo
ongeveer begin zestiger jaren zijn ge-
weest. Er kwam een verzoek binnen bij
TNO om te helpen een op het terrein
van het slachthuis in Paramaribo failliet
gegaan vleeswarenbedrijf van de grond
te krijgen. De toenmalige minister-
president van Suriname, Sedney, had
van mij gehoord en zodoende ben ik er
naartoe gegaan. Met hulp van de daar
aanwezige veterinairen en met steun
ook vanuit de vakgroep Voedingsmid-
delen van Dierlijke Oorsprong, zijn wij
erin geslaagd vlees als grondstof te
gebruiken voor de bereiding van vlees-
waren die ook populair zijn in Surina-
me, maar die men eigenlijk allemaal
importeerde, onder andere vanuit de
Verenigde Staten. Dat is bijzonder
aardig op gang gekomen, vooral ook
omdat de Surinaamse regering bedacht
had dat er aandelen uitgegeven konden
worden voor ieder die over een klein
beetje geld beschikte. Na een half jaar
zonder veel tegenwerking lukte het om
uit de rode cijfers te komen, maar na
nog een paar maanden begon men te
merken dat de importeurs zich hadden
bezonnen en alsnog de prijzen van
Importprodukten hadden verlaagd. Dat
wil zeggen dat ze accepteerden dat hun
winst lager werd om daardoor het
vleeswarenbedrijfje in Suriname zelf,
waar zij slechts zijdelings bij betrokken
waren, niet op deze manier te laten
voortbestaan, want dat was niet in hun
belang. En inderdaad, na elf, twaalf
maanden zaten we weer in de rode
cijfers. De produkten van Surinaamse
bodem werden niet gekocht, terwijl ze
van een uitstekende kwaliteit waren.
Het ging om snij worst, boterhamworst,
bloedworst, typisch de produkten die ze
in Suriname heel veel aten. Ze lieten
zelfs rauwe ham uit Amerika komen
die ze uitstekend daar in Suriname
konden maken. Ik heb dat als een les
voor mijn verdere carrière beschouwd.
Het is heel triest, maar dit soort dingen
gebeurt vandaag de dag nog overal in
de wereld. Maar het hoort bij het
quot;spelquot;.

Professor B. Krol heeft in Utrecht de oorlogsjaren doorgemaakt, en met name de
hongerwinter heeft een diepe indruk bij hem achtergelaten. De gebeurtenissen uit
die tijd waren het begin van een rode draad in zijn leven, namehjk contacten met
mensen die geïnteresseerd zijn in een heel traditioneel produkt, in dit geval de
boerenkaas. Dat is bij al zijn werkzaamheden zo gebleven. Zijn vader was mede-
werker van de zuivelconsulent en adviseerde de boeren hoe ze goede boerenkaas
konden maken. Na het behalen van het middelbare-schooldiploma in 1947 vertrok
de jonge Krol naar Wageningen, waar hij uiteindelijk koos voor de studie voedsel-
technologie. Tijdens zijn militaire diensttijd kwam hij voor het eerst in contact met
de Faculteit Diergeneeskunde in Utrecht en CIVO-TNO, zijn latere werkgevers.
Ir. B. Krol werd in 1969 benoemd tot buitengewoon hoogleraar in de Technologie
van de voedingsmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong. Hij was inmiddels al enige jaren
hoofd van het Nederlands Centrum voor Vleestechnologie van CIVO-TNO in
Zeist. Vanuit deze quot;dubbelpositiequot; is Prof. Krol vele jaren actief betrokken geweest
bij ontwikkelingssamenwerkingsprojecten. In onderstaand vraaggesprek geeft hij
zijn mening over diverse aspecten van vleesverwerking, -hygiëne en technologie in
de tropen.

U bent als consultant voor DGIS regel-
matig uitgezonden naar ontwikkelings-
landen. Het betrof met name de vraag:
hoe moeten we slachthuizen opzetten,
wat moeten we met het vlees doen, moe-
ten we dat gaan exporteren?

Mijn eerste bezoeken hadden altijd te
maken met cursusactiviteiten in de
Derde-Wereldlanden zelf. Ik heb daar-
door de omstandigheden leren kennen
en ook geleerd dat het moeite kost
westerse opvattingen en technologie
aan te passen aan de mogelijkheden die
er in die landen nu eenmaal zijn.
Een voorbeeld is, en daar moet je als
Westeuropeaan aan wennen, dat in
bijna alle tropische landen nog altijd \'s
nachts dieren worden geslacht. De
dieren worden overdag en \'s avonds,
verzameld, en na middernacht worden
ze geslacht, bij de laagste temperatuur.
De volgende morgen wordt dat vlees
op de markt verkocht.
Onder andere in Yemen, waar ik op
verzoek van DGIS zo\'n twaalf keer
geweest ben, heb ik gezien dat in de-
zelfde ruimte waar dieren verzameld
werden en ook hun mest deponeerden
ook geslacht werd. Als je er in slaagt
dat van elkaar te scheiden, vervolgens
de slachthandelingen op een correcte
manier uitvoert, verdacht bent op dier-
ziekten en wat dies meer zij, daar ook
op beoordeelt, dan heb je vlees van een
aanzienlijk betere hygiënische kwahteit
beschikbaar. Vervolgens moet dat vlees
dan onder toezicht op markten, in
ruimten die daarvoor herkenbaar aan-
wezig zijn, verkocht kunnen worden.
Omdat een goede veterinaire infra-
structuur ontbrak moesten in Yemen
eerst mensen opgeleid worden om
dieren te kunnen slachten en om toe-
zicht te houden. Dat is allemaal ge-
beurd en het aantrekkelijke voor die
mensen was dat de huiden van de gei-
ten en runderen een zeer goede prijs
op de wereldmarkt opleverden. We
hebben bewust niet voor koeling geko-

zen, omdat ruim tien jaar geleden in
Yemen energie zeer schaars was en
omdat er op de meeste plaatsen niet
eens elektriciteit was. Dat is een ver-
schrikkelijk moeilijke beslissing voor
een westerse technoloog en toch is het
resultaat fantastisch geweest. Het was
zelfs zo dat door de bijprodukten, het
slachtafval, te verzamelen en daar weer
veevoer van te maken en dat als voer
voor de dieren te gebruiken, de melk-
gift in een beperkt aantal jaren merk-
baar hoger werd. Dus, aan de ene kant
werd meer van het dier benut: de hui-
den voor leerbewerking en de botten
als veevoer en aan de andere kant was
het vlees van een betere kwahteit en
werd het onder toezicht verkocht op de
markt.

Verkoopt een eigenaar zijn dieren aan
het slachthuis, of laat hij ze alleen slach-
ten?

Het dier wordt, net als hier in Neder-
land, door de eigenaar verkocht. Het is
duidelijk dat zo\'n slachthuisverantwoor-
delijke probeert om de kosten die hij
maakt er weer uit te krijgen. Ik doel
eigenlijk op twee dingen. Ten eerste
moet je het geslachte dier netjes uit
elkaar halen, en dus zorgen voor oplei-
ding van het personeel. Het afnemen
van de huid bijvoorbeeld moet vaktech-
nisch gebeuren. Je mag er niet in snij-
den, want dan is die huid veel minder
waard. Zo\'n opleiding moet georgani-
seerd worden. Daar is met name in het
Yemen-project veel aandacht aan be-
steed en dat is ook heel succesrijk
verlopen.

Ten tweede moet het management
goed zijn. Je kunt het wel technisch
allemaal voor elkaar hebben, maar als
zowel de aankoop als het hele beheer
van de middelen (dus ook de beschik-
baarheid van reserve-onderdelen) niet
deugen, dan bereik je nog niets. Ook
dat is in Yemen heel behoorlijk ge-
slaagd.

U hebt aan de wieg gestaan van cursus-
sen in vele landen-
de. hebben zo\'n 17 jaar interessante
cursussen gegeven in Kenya, waaraan
ook FAO en WHO officials een bijdra-
ge leverden. quot;Wequot; dat waren in het
begin de vakgroep VVDO, TNO en de
Keuringsdiensten, samen met de uni-
versiteit in Nairobi. In deze periode
kregen mensen uit de regio Oost-Afri-
ka een jaar lang een opleiding om
zowel in slachthuizen en op verwer-
kingsbedrijven, maar ook in restaurants
en op markten, de hygiënische kwali-
teit, de hoedanigheid van het vlees, de
vis en dergelijke te beoordelen. Na
afloop kregen de cursisten een diplo-
ma.

DGIS financierde dit project en maakte
er een regionale activiteit van met om
de 2 ä 3 jaar een 3 daags symposium.
Het heeft een tijd lang perfect gelopen.
Maar, geleidelijk zijn de middelen
beperkter geworden met de bedoeling
dat de Kenyaanse veterinaire en niet-
veterinaire autoriteiten de cursus zou-
den overnemen. Dat is na een paar jaar
om alle mogelijke redenen weer in
elkaar gezakt, zoals je helaas vaak ziet
in ontwikkelingslanden. Ik ben een jaar
of 4 geleden weer opnieuw begonnen
de contacten te leggen in die regio.
Ook in Ghana ben ik een paar keer
geweest om zulke cursussen op te zet-
ten. Uiteindelijk zijn deze cursussen
door DGIS gefinancierd, waardoor een
beperkt aantal Ghanezen naar Neder-
land kon komen voor verdere training,
om daarna ter plaatse cursussen te
geven.

Het waren hygiëne-cursussen. Er werd
ook aandacht besteed aan de vraag hoe
maak je van vlees en vis goede eind-
produkten? Het ging om basale kennis,
van het niveau: hoe kun je nou, terwijl
je zuinig omgaat met hout, vis roken
maar ook zo hygiënisch mogelijk bezig
zijn?

Deze cursus is vier jaar lang gegeven,
toen was die quot;budgetperiodequot; helaas
weer om. Er is daarnaast nog een een-
voudige managementcursus geweest,
waar wij niet bij betrokken waren, en
op het ogenbUk staat het weer stil.
Nu het wat beter gaat in Ghana hoop
ik dat ik de gelegenheid krijg om in
goed overleg met DGIS deze opleiding
weer van de grond te krijgen, niet al-
leen voor de vissector maar ook voor
de vleessector.

De Vakgroep WD O participeert ook in
een samenwerkingsverband met de na-
tionale universiteit in Benin

In Benin is het contact gelegd vanuit
Wageningen. Men heeft geprobeerd
ook in Benin een activiteit te starten
waar de voedingscomponent inzat,
rekening houdend met de uitkomsten
van de cursus in Kenya. We hebben in
goed overleg besloten om ons te con-
centreren op vis, en dan met name de
be- en verwerking op een eenvoudige,
niet zeer geavanceerde manier. Maar
wel weer met aandacht voor de micro-
biologie en voeding. Het is heel ple-
zierig dat dat inmiddels een groot aan-
tal jaren loopt. Dr. Ir. J.H. Houben van
de vakgroep VVDO is de man die als
projectleider dat gedeelte vorm en
gestalte heeft gegeven. Ook dat project
is bezig af te lopen en het quot;Hoe nu
verder?quot; is aan de orde.
Het project heeft niet zozeer nieuwe
Produkten als wel gezondere en betere
Produkten opgeleverd. Men is zich
gaan realiseren, en de universiteit
houdt daar rekening mee bij de oplei-
ding, dat je van een gezonde grondstof
uit moet gaan. Een afwijkende kwaliteit
is natuurlijk een afkeuring waard, maar

Verbeterde rookovens
voor vis leveren met
minder hout toch een
hygiënisch produkt {foto:
Krol)

zaken die nog wel behandeld kunnen
worden, waar nog een goed eindpro-
dukt van gemaakt kan worden, die
moet je daarvoor benutten.

Ziet u überhaupt nog een mogelijkheid
voor zo\'n arm land als Benin bijvoor-
beeld om dit soort cursussen te financie-
ren?

Houben en ik kwamen tot de conclusie
dat we dat zeker de eerste jaren nog
maar moeten vergeten. Benin behoort
gelukkig nog wel tot de landen waar
het Nederlandse ontwikkelingsbeleid
steun aan wil geven. En er zijn zo nu
en dan weer positieve ontwikkelingen,
ook vanuit andere landen. Natuurlijk
Frankrijk, maar ook Canada heeft daar
een rol gespeeld en speelt nog altijd
een rol. We hoeven het echt niet hele-
maal alleen te doen, maar het blijft een
moeilijke situatie in Benin.

De cursussen die we elk jaar in Wage-
ningen geven op het gebied van techno-
logie en kwaliteit bevatten ook een
vleescomponent. De cursisten uit Azia-
tische en Afrikaanse landen komen zich
soms ook bij TNO in Zeist en Wage-
ningen, en bij de vakgroep VVDO
daarop oriënteren voor kortere of lan-
gere tijd. Centraal staan de uitgangs-
voorwaarden waaraan de grondstof
moet voldoen. Deze cursussen zijn als
het ware ook een kadervorming op
academisch of HBO-niveau. Het aan-
komend kader wordt in 5 maanden
getraind in alle facetten van kwaliteit
en management, maar ook de vlees-
component wordt erbij betrokken. En
ja, het is natuurlijk duidelijk dat je je
daarbij als cursusleider of althans voor-
zitter van de begeleidingscommissie,
moet realiseren dat het voor die landen
niet alleen gaat om vlees en vis, maar
ook om de andere, plantaardige Pro-
dukten. Daar hebben we een aardige
balans voor gevonden en de studenten
gaan tijdens hun verblijf dan ook een
paar dagen naar bedrijven toe. Enfin,
het is nu het 5e jaar dat we die cursus
van 5 maanden geven, die grotendeels
betaald wordt door DGIS, maar voor
een deel ook door bedrijven of door de
overheid in eigen land en ik beschouw
dat als een heel interessante aanvulling
op wat ze via andere kanalen krijgen.

In de tropen zie je op veel plaatsen
kleine stalletjes langs de weg. Daar hangt
dan bijvoorbeeld een half varken te koop
dat in de pekel is gezet...

Dat is natuurlijk nog een ander punt.
We hadden in Indonesië echt een heel
aardige opzet bedacht voor een zoge-
naamd Street food project. Inmiddels is
zo\'n project ook in Thailand opgestart.
In Indonesië is het niet afgemaakt
omdat de President besloot dat het niet
nodig was te profiteren van de Neder-
landse middelen. Het project was ge-
concentreerd in Bogor en er waren in
belangrijke mate ook Indonesiërs, in-
clusief studenten, bij betrokken, maar
ook medewerkers van TNO en studen-
ten uit Wageningen.
Het was de bedoeling om de condities
te leren kennen waaronder het op een
verantwoorde manier mogelijk moet
zijn op straat voedsel te kopen van
plantaardige of dierlijke oorsprong. En,
zo blijkt ook uit sociologisch onder-
zoek, iedereen van rijk tot arm koopt
elke dag produkten op straat. Er zijn er
zelfs bij die het uitsluitend van het
straatvoedsel moeten hebben. We heb-
ben tijdens ons onderzoek een aantal
risico-elementen aangetroffen, zoals
ongewenste bacteriën, een hoog gehalte
aan bestrijdingsmiddelen of lood. We
hebben nog andere ongerechtigheden
ontdekt. We hebben geprobeerd door
training en voorlichting daar een rich-
ting aan te geven. Enfin, het project
was net over de helft toen het gestopt
moest worden, helaas.

Tot de overheid toe was men erg ge-
ïnteresseerd. Met name in Bogor is er
een modelproject van gemaakt. Er
waren straten, daar mocht men geen
straatvoedsel verkopen tenzij men van
de schaduw gebruik maakte. Zo waren
er meer oplossingen bedacht, echt
lokaal bedacht, naast toezicht op pro-
duktie en presentatie. En dat was na-
tuurlijk ook ons streven. Wij kunnen
wel iets verzinnen, maar het moet ook
gerealiseerd kunnen worden in die
landen. Het street food project be-
schouw ik eigenlijk als een van de inte-
ressantste projecten, het is een goed
perspectief voor de eenvoudige man
om aan voedsel te komen. Maar nog-
maals, ook de rijke man eet dat pro-
dukt. En ik vind het toch wel aardig
dat in Thailand, en ook in Ghana waar
men zeer geïnteresseerd is in dit onder-
werp, een poging ondernomen wordt
om een bijdrage te leveren aan de
verbetering van de kwaliteit van die
produkten die men dagelijks eet. Men
realiseert zich het probleem.

En dan kom ik weer terug op wat ik al
eerder heb gezegd. De gewoonte in die
landen is nog altijd dat je \'s morgens
vroeg je vlees koopt. Dat kook je tot je
het consumeert en je houdt dan niets
over. Ondanks langdurig koken levert
het in ieder geval voldoende eiwitten
op. Dat een aantal van de nuttige vita-
minen niet meer in die mate aanwezig
is, is dan heel spijtig. Maar het ver-
klaart wel waarom er toch weinig voed-
selvergiftiging voorkomt. Bovendien, als
het vlees stinkt of erg verkleurd is,
nemen ze het ook niet meer. Dat ver-
klaart dat het eigenlijk nog zo lang zo

goed gaat, maar het kan nog veel beter.
Daarvoor heb je echter voorzieningen
als koeUng nodig. Ik geloof dat de
koeling geleidelijk ook een meer be-
reikbaarder technologie aan het worden
is. Er wordt aan de Technische Univer-
siteit in Delft bijvoorbeeld gewerkt aan
apparatuur op basis van zonne-energie.
En overcapaciteit aan goedkope ener-
gie die door een stuwmeer geprodu-
ceerd wordt, kan benut worden om ijs
te maken. Daarmee blijft vis vanaf de
vangst langere tijd van uitstekende
kwaliteit en kan verder weg verkocht
worden. Maar de produkten zijn dan
wat duurder en als de mensen door
betere ontwikkeling ook in staat zijn
om meer geld te verdienen, dan kun-
nen ze het ook betalen. En dat is de
mooiste fdosofie die je voor die men-
sen kunt bedenken. Dat iedereen in
staat is voldoende te verdienen om een
beter produkt te kunnen betalen.

Ja, dat doe ik graag. Wat kan de tech-
nologie bijdragen aan het verbeteren
van omstandigheden in de tropen?
Nou, dan vertel ik mijn ervaringen. De
hoofdlijnen en de lessen die in het
verleden geleerd zijn, geef je dan door,
al dan niet via aanschouwelijk onder-
wijs. Ik heb het altijd heel nuttig gevon-
den voor zich oriënterende veterinaire
studenten. Er zijn zeker perspectieven
voor mensen die de Tropencursus vol-
gen, alleen mijn vakgebied kun je nooit
in enkele uren behandelen. Maar naar-
mate de ontwikkeling van de derde
wereld doorgaat - het sterkste voor-
beeld dat ik ken is de situatie in Thai-
land, maar in Indonesië en Maleisië is
iets dergelijks aan de gang - denk ik
dat een veterinair een nuttige rol kan
spelen. Dat kun je naar mijn mening
het beste doen als overheidsfunctionaris
of in een groot bedrijf. Dan gaat het
natuurlijk niet om tientallen veterinai-
ren. En Nederland is niet het enige
land dat veterinairen of Wageningse
technologen voor dat doel beschikbaar
kan stellen. Er is de afgelopen 20 jaar
toch wel wat in beweging gekomen.
Maar ging het nou maar ietsje beter in
Afrika, dan konden nog meer mensen
deze rol spelen!

In de loop van de tijd is er veel midden-
kader opgeleid via de cursussen die u
hebt georganiseerd...

Ja, precies, middenkaderopleidingen
zouden nog wat meer de kans moeten
krijgen om dit soort initiatieven en
ontwikkelingen te ondersteunen, want
voor dergelijke functies heb je geen
hooggekwalificeerde academici nodig.
Maar voor het te voeren beleid en de
omschakeling op nieuwe technologieën,
en ook voor het hele warenwettelijke
vleeskeuringstoezicht, daar heb je mo-
dern opgeleide veterinairen voor nodig.

En je kunt je afvragen of die landen
die dergelijk mensen niet of nauwelijks
ter beschikking hebben weer moeten
beginnen met de traditionele opzet van
de keuring. Moet je niet tegelijk vertel-
len dat er de laatste 10 jaar in het
westen een nieuwe benadering gevolgd
wordt die het misschien nog makkelij-
ker maakt om dat toezicht uit te oefe-
nen tegen wat minder kosten? Nou, in
die overgangsfase verkeren we nu.
De keurmeesters in Nederland zijn
zeer ervaren en praktische mensen, die
zou ik eigenlijk graag als voorlopers
sturen naar de landen waar meer aan
het toezicht en de be- en verwerking
van de grondstof gedaan wordt. Zij
moeten dan gevolgd worden door een
aantal goed opgeleide veterinairen, die
hetzij in het toezicht, hetzij in de be-
en verwerking hun kansen krijgen. De
organisatoren van de keurmeestersop-
leiding weten dat de mensen in die
landen zeer geïnteresseerd zijn in de
nieuwste ontwikkelingen, maar dat je
daar geen theoretische verhalen moet
houden. Aan de andere kant, de veteri-
naire student moet zich realiseren dat
hij met zijn opleiding daar wel een
nuttige bijdrage kan leveren. Het inte-
grale ketenbeleid is een heel duidelijk
voorbeeld dat het niet stopt bij de
boerderij.

Je kan een integrale ketenbewaking wel
propageren, maar als je geen controle
hebt op wat de veehoeders met hun vee
doen, dan houdt het wel op.

Het houdt niet op. Die veehoeders
horen het natuurlijk niet van ons, die
moeten het horen van hun eigen land-
genoten. Denk aan de cursus in Kenya
die daarvoor bedoeld is. Kijk, dat vlees
werd vroeger toch nooit veel verder
dan de eigen omgeving gegeten. Maar
als landen kans zien om het vlees ook
nog te verkopen - ik hoop niet dat het
ten nadele is van de voedselconsumptie
van de eigen bevolking, dat is dan ook
weer zo\'n afweging - dan moet ieder-
een zich realiseren dat de ontvangende
landen steeds kritischer worden. Maar
als het vlees voldoet aan de eisen dan
willen die er ook best voor betalen. En
dat is weer goed voor de economie van
het exporterende land. Nou, dat ver-
haal, aan de veehoeders in Kenya, dat
kan geen Nederlander geven. Maar de
keurmeesters van ons gaan het wel
vertellen aan de Kenyaanse keurmees-
ters en die kunnen het aan hun land-
genoten vertellen. Of in Zimbabwe, of
noem maar op. Men moet het niet als
een luxe zien, maar als een basisvoor-
waarde voor de economie van zo\'n land
en ook voor de veiligheid van de
grondstof.

U huilt niet mee in het koor van de
wolven dat ontwikkelingssamenwerking
geen zin heeft?

Integendeel. Nog altijd gaat naar schat-
ting 20 tot 25 procent van alle geprodu-
ceerde agrarische produkten verloren.
De FAO is al lang bezig om een deel
van die grote verhezen te beperken. De
verliezen zijn nu teruggebracht van 30
naar 20 procent of daaromtrent, nie-
mand weet het exact, maar in die orde
van grootte is het wel. Dat betekent dat
je 10 procent meer voedsel beschikbaar
hebt dat toch al geproduceerd werd,
maar door onzorgvuldige behandehng
en opslag niet bij de consument terecht
kwam. Als we dat nu nog verder redu-
ceren naar 10 procent dan ben ik een
gelukkig mens. Maar dat heeft alles te
maken met techniek, met technologie,
dat heeft te maken met discipline van
de keten. Het heeft zelfs te maken met
economische ontwikkeling waarvan je
mag hopen dat die zich in die landen
zal voordoen, zodat ze de extra inspan-
ningen, die beloond moeten worden,
ook kunnen betalen.
Dus ik behoor tot de mensen die zeg-
gen: voor een groot aantal landen is
het bij zoveel dat nog verloren gaat en
met zoveel lieden die te weinig voedsel
krijgen een must om met ontwikke-
lingssamenwerking door te gaan. En ja,
dan vind ik dat 0,8 procent van het
bruto nationaal produkt dat wordt
besteed aan ontwikkelingshulp ook in
Nederland beter dan 0,7 procent. Als ik
zie wat wij hier allemaal verspillen en
wat wij ons kunnen permitteren, dan
vind ik het gewoon absurd dat we hier
nog zo lang over praten. En dan is het
beter om met financiële middelen ter
plaatse steun te geven dan al die men-
sen maar weer naar het westen te ha-
len. Nee, wij hebben goed naar ze te
luisteren en moeten goed om ons heen
kijken, omdat je bepaalde zaken die je
denkt daar te moeten doen, gewoon
niet kunt doen. Dat kan zijn vanwege
een religie of een gewoonte die daar
eeuwenlang heeft bestaan, of vanwege
het klimaat. Dat kun je je beter ter
plekke bekijken dan dat je het hier in
Nederland vanuit een boekje moet
doen.

René van Weeren is het nieuwe redac-
tiehd van EQUATOR. Paul René van
Weeren werd geboren op 17 mei 1957
te Rotterdam. Na het behalen van zijn
Gymnasium-6 diploma begon hij in
1975 aan de studie Diergeneeskunde te
Utrecht. Het kandidaats- en doctoraal-
examen legde René respectievelijk in
de jaren 1977 en 1979 cum laude af. Na
het volgen van het keuze-coschap de
Tropencursus in 1981 werkte hij in het
laatste stadium van de opleiding ge-
durende zes maanden op de quot;Empresa
Agro-Pecuaria de Chagalanequot; te Chan-
galane, Mo§ambique. Waarna hij actief
werd in de Stichting FA VAM; een
groep van Nederlandse dierenartsen die
zich in zet voor de collega\'s in Mozam-
bique.

Het dierenartsexamen werd in mei
1983 quot;cum laudequot; behaald. Van 1 juH
1983 tot 1 augustus 1991 was René van
Weeren verbonden aan de Vakgroep
Algemene Heelkunde en Heelkunde
der Grote Huisdieren van de Faculteit
Diergeneeskunde te Utrecht. Op 2
november 1989 verdedigde hij met
succes zijn proefschrift, getiteld quot;Skin

Tijdens deze periode bij de Faculteit
waren de bijdragen van René aan het
Faculteitsnieuws in de humoristische
rubriek \'Paultje Piggelmee\' penne-
vruchten waar veel lezers naar uit ke-
ken. Ook zijn realistische reisbeschrij-
vingen zullen enkele zich nog wel her-
inneren.

Van oktober 1991 tot november 1993
werkte René aan de quot;Catédra de Clf-
nicaquot; van de Escuela de Medicina Ve-
terinaria van de Universidad Nacional
(UNA) te Heredia (Costa Rica) binnen
het samenwerkingsverband tussen de
Universiteit Utrecht en de UNA. Ge-
durende deze periode legde hij zich,
naast het klinisch werk, vooral toe op
de verbetering van het onderwijsma-
teriaal.

Vanaf 1 november 1993 is René van
Weeren wederom verbonden aan de
Vakgroep Algemene Heelkunde en

Heelkunde der Grote Huisdieren, waar
hij zich, naast de klinische werkzaam-
heden, richt op het opstarten van nieuw
orthopedisch onderzoek (artrose-pro-
blematiek bij het paard) en het verwer-
ven van fondsen ten bate van het we-
tenschappelijk onderzoek.
In 1991 is hij charter-member gewor-
den van het European College of Vete-
rinary Surgeons (ECVS). In 1994 legde
hij het examen van het ECVS met
succes af en kreeg daardoor de diplo-
mate-status. René is verder nog lid van
de Groep Paardenpractici van de Ko-
ninklijke Nederlandse Maatschappij
voor Diergeneeskunde, van de Ameri-
can Association of Equine Practioners
(AAEP) en van de Asociación Costari-
cense de Médicos Veterinarios Practi-
cantes en Equinos (ACOMVEPE).

. April - July, 1995.
Short term courses in Tropical Veterinary
Epidemiology. Module I (18 April - 5 May,
1995): Introduction to computers and orien-
tation to statistics. Module II (8 May - 2
June, 1995): Introduction to epidemiology
and applied statistics. Module III (3 - 28
July, 1995): Quantitative epidemiology and
advanced medical statistics for epidemiology.
Information: Free University of Berlin, Post-
graduate Studies in Tropical Veterinary
Medicine, Augustrasse 37, 12203 Berlin (Tel:
49.30.8348413, telefax: 49.30.8341908).

3quot;* Biennial meeting of the Society for Tropi-
cal Veterinary Medicine (STVM). Symposia:
(1) Vector-borne pathogens: challenges for
the 21*\' century; (2) Intemational trade and
animal diseases; and (3) General sessions:
Contributed papers on Tropical veterinary
medicine. Registration fee usS 250.00. Regis-
tration: Dr. J. A. House, STVM-95 Chair-
man, USDA Aphis Faddl, Box 848, Green-
port, NY 11944, USA (Tel.: 1.516.3232500
ext. 350, telefax: 1.516.3232798).

4-10 June and 6-12 August, 1995.
Two courses \'Wildlife Capture Course for
Veterinary Surgeons\' are organized in the
Kruger National Park by veterinarians from
the Price Forbes Chair in Wildlife, Univer-
sity of Pretoria and the National Parks
Board. Training and practical experience in
the capture of a variety of free-ranging spe-
cies including elephant, lion, buffalo and
antelope. Costs £ 650.00. Information: tel.:
27.12.5298077, telefax: 27.12.5298312.
Maximum 10 participants.

2°^ Course on: Artificial insemination in pigs.
Subjects: Collection of semen; Evaluation
and processing of semen in the laboratory;
Insemination and sow production control;
Organization of an AI station and Selection
of breeding stock. Fees including board and
lodging: 6,500. Information: IPC Livestock
Bameveld College, Dep. of International
Studies and Cooperation Programmes, P.O.
Box 64, 3770 AB Bameveld (Tel.: 31.3420.-
14881, telefax: 31.3420.92813).

Intensive course on Laboratory Animal
Science. Objective of the course: to present
basic facts and principles that are essential
for the humane use of animals and for the
quality of research. Subjects: gnotobiology;
animal welfare, euthanasia; statistics; biology
and husbandry of laboratory animals; labora-
tory animal science databases (PREX); pro-
tocols for experiments; behaviour, housing,
stress and well being; anaesthesia; genetic
standardization; N.M.R. facility; micro-
surgery; animal handling; altematives to
animal experiments; ethics; nutrition; legisla-
tion and regulations and practical training.
Fees: course fee Dfl. 2,550; board and lodg-
ing Dfl. 1,950. Closing date: 1 May, 1995.
Information and registration: Mrs. M. Al-
bers, Dep. of Laboratory Animal Science,
Faculty of Veterinaiy Medicine, P.O. Box
80.166, 3508 TD Utrecht (Tel.: 31.30.-

23\'^ Intemational course on dairy farming in
rural development. Course programme:
Introduction; Dairy development; Farming
systems; Statistics; Economics and agricul-
tural credit; Breeding; Pasture production;
Nutrition and feeding: Animal health; Re-
production and AI, Extension and case
studies. Course fee: Dfl. 4,500. Closing date:
1 May, 1995. Information and registration:
Intemational Agricultural Centre (lAC),
P.O. Box 88, 6700 AB Wageningen (Tel.:
31.8370.90111, telefax: 31.8370.18552).

21nbsp;August, 1995 - 6 June, 1996.
Intemational course on \'Tropical Animal
Production. Organized by: Larenstein Inter-
national Agricultural College Deventer.
Entry requirements: Diploma or degree in
Animal Science and minimal 5 years relevant
professional experience. Programme: Inte-
grated approach to feed production, nutri-
tion and reproduction of farm animals; ma-
nagement of farms and farm units; farm eco-
nomics and extension approaches; farming
systems analysis; rapid rural appraisal and an
international excursion. The approach is
problem-oriented to enhance the problem
solving capacity of the participants. Tuition
fee: Dfl. 9,675; Board and lodging:
Dfl.17,000. Information and registration:
Registry Larenstein IT^.C., P.O. Box 7, 7400
DA Deventer (Tel.: 31.5700.84654, telefax:
31.5700.84608).

23 August 1995 - 22 February, 1996.
25quot;quot; International course on poultry husban-
dry and 25quot;\' International course on pig hus-
bandry. These courses will run at the same
time. Following these courses participation is
possible in the 18quot;^ International animal feed
training programme, which runs from 25 Fe-
bruary to 24 May, 1996. Direct entry in this
last course is also possible. Fees including
board and lodging: Poultry course: Dfl
24,500; Pig course: Dfl. 24,500, Feed course;
Dfl. 12,000 or 14,500 (direct entry). Closing
date: 1 May, 1995. Infonnation: IPC Live-
stock Bameveld College, Dep. of Interna-
tional Studies and Cooperation Programmes,
P.O. Box 64, 3770 AB Bameveld (Tel.: 31.-
3420.14881, telefax: 31.3420.92813).

28 August - 1 September, 1995.
The Second intemational conference on tick-
bome pathogens at the host-vector interface
(THOI); Tick-host-pathogen interactions: A
global perspective. Organized by: Onderste-
poort Veterinary Institute and Medical Uni-
versity of South Africa. The goal of the
conference is to create a forum to review the
current status on the biology and ecology of
ticks and tick-borne animal pathogens, espe-
cially those of Africa. A 4-day post confe-
rence workshop on ticks and tick-bome dis-
ease identification and diagnostics is envis-
aged at Onderstepoort under the auspices of
the Office Intemational des epizooties. In-
formation and registration: Ms. T. Wilhelmi,
Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Private
Bag X05, Onderstepoort 0110, Rep. of South
Africa (Tel. 27.12.5299329, telefax: 27-
.12.556573, E-mail: tamara@moon.ovi.ac.za).

World Veterinary Congress. XXV Congress
of the World Veterinary Association and XX
Congress of the World Small Animal Veteri-
naiy Association. Theme: Advancing Veteri-
nary Profession in a Changing World. For
inquiries regarding a request for the first
announcement and registration procedures
contact: The Secretariat WVC, c/o Sankei
Convention, Sankei Building lOF, 1-7-2,
Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100 (Tel.:
81.3.32732084, telefax: 81.3.32732439).

25-29 September, 1995.
8*^ International Conference of Institutes of
Tropical Veterinaiy Medicine: Livestock
production and diseases in the tropics: Live-
stock production and human welfare. Orga-
nized by: Association of Institutions of tropi-
cal Veterinary Medicine (AITVM). Program-
ma: Plenary sessions with papers of invited
speakers and six workshops introduced by
brief communications and posters on: Peri-
urban livestock production; Epidemiology
and socio-economics in different livestock
systems; Impact of livestock on the environ-
ment; Veterinary public health in different
livestock systems; The role of women in
animal husbandry and Target oriented trai-
ning needs, demands and facilities in less
developed countries. For registration and
submission of brief communications: Prof.
Dr. D. Mehlitz, Institute for Parasitology
and Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Free Uni-
versity of Beriin, Koeningsweg, 14163 Berlin.

EQUATOR is a periodical of
the Office for International
Cooperation of the Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht
University.

EQUATOR is published bi-
monthly. The January, May and
September issues of EQUATOR
are published in Enghsh.

Veterinary scientists whose field of
research or interests hes within the
tropics have busy times in 1995. The 3\'^
biennial meeting of the Society for Tro-
pical Veterinary Medicine (STVM) has
just ended in San José, Costa Rica and
aheady those who want to stay in touch
with the latest developments in the
control of tsetse and trypanosomiasis
have to start preparing for the 23quot;^
biennial Meeting of the ISCTRC (In-
ternational Scientific Council for
Trypanosomiasis Research and Control
of the Organization of African Unity)
in Banjul, The Gambia. This confer-
ence, which takes place in September,
1995, just proceeds the Squot;*quot; International
Conference of the AITVM (Associ-
ation of Institutes of Tropical Veterin-
ary Medicine). The triennial AITVM
conference will this year be held during
the last week of September in Berlin,
Germany.

In between these important interna-
tional meetings the scientists in the
European Union (EU) are faced with
the unexpectedly early closing date of
June 15, 1995 for the new EU pro-
gramme for support of research in
collaboration with developing countries.
Partners are being sought; proposals
are being written, commented on and
re-written; and more rumours about
\'how to increase the chances for suc-
cess\' are circulating, the closer we
approach the 15quot;* of June. This EU
programme for International Coope-
ration (INCO) offers possibihties for
collaborative research projects as well
as support for networks.

One could get the impression that the
scientific community for research on
tropical animal health is quite numer-
ous. However, compeu-ed to the ever
increasing demand for animal protein
in the world this is unfortunately not
the case. Funds for research and scien-
tific education are becoming more and
more difficult to obtain. The fact that
in 1995 three important international
meetings on tropical animal health can
take place is the result of utmost
efforts of a small number of very dedi-
cated and enthusiastic individuals.

STVM, ISCTRC and AITVM have so
much in common that a serious effort
should be undertaken to identify the
objectives, strengths and weaknesses of
each of the organizations cuid come-up
with one \'world veterinEuy association
for research and education in the tro-
pics\'.

STVM has a strong history in basic
research on vector-borne parasites,
linked to field apphcation in mainly
Latin America. ISCTRC is concentra-
ted on tsetse and trypanosomiasis
research in Africa in collaboration with
some international, European and
American institutes. The AITVM pla-
ces, in addition to research on animal
health, emphasis on training needs,
while livestock production is put into
the socio-economic context. AITVM
member institutions of are mainly
based in Europe and Asia.

By joining hands worldwide, funds for
the organization of international con-
ferences, for the development of a
system of data basis for exchcuige of
information via Internet and for
research as well as scholarships, can be
more adequately used. Which may
induce donors to be more forthcoming.
And for example the heavy task of
organizing regular international meet-
ings may than be divided over more

Will the first step towards a \'World
veterinary association for research and
education in the tropics\' be taken in
September in Berlin? The editorial
board of EQUATOR is certainly pre-
pared to play a role m the development
of a communication system between
future members of such an association.

Mehhtz: Our institute is part of the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the
Free University Berlin. After the reuni-
fication of Germany, all of a sudden we
had two faculties of veterinary medicine
in Berlin, of course this is to much.
After a lot of palaver and big negotia-
tions the officials came to the conclu-
sion that both faculties had to fuse.
The next step was: quot;Where should it be
located?quot; Should this faculty be connec-
ted to the old Humboldt University in
East Berlin, or should it be connected
to the Free University. Not so long ago
came the decision: for 5 years the fa-
culty should be connected to the Free
University. I am not going into details
about all the difficulties, but you can
imagine what sort of difficulties are still
there because of the historical back-
ground. Within this Faculty of Vete-
rinary Medicine there is the Institute of
Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary
Medicine. Within this institute there is
the Department Tropical Veterinary
Medicine and Epidemiology. This quot;and
Epidemiologyquot; was added about 3 years
ago because we thought - and that was
a general feeling - that the analytical
epidemiology should have a very special
place within tropical veterinary medici-
ne. We have epidemiologists working
here, which makes the department
quite an efficient unit. But the whole
set-up of tropical veterinary medicine is
within the Institute of Parasitology and
Tropical Veterinary Medicine. The
postgraduate studies are basically con-
nected directly to the Faculty. But, as

Prof. Mehlitz and Dr. Miinstermann are
responsible for the
postgraduate training in
tropical veterinary
medicine at the Free
University Berlin (Photo:
De Gooijer)

In February 1995, Jean de Gooijer, one of the editors of EQUATOR, happened to be in Berlin, Germany. He took the
opportunity to talk to Prof. Dr. Dieter Mehlitz and Dr. Susanne Miinstermann who are responsible for the postgraduate
courses in tropical veterinary medicine and epidemiology at Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Free University in Berlin.

Is there a general education for German
veterinary students who want to have a
job in the tropics?

all the staff and the expertise are within
the Institute and our Department, also
to the Institute. I think we want to
keep this situation as long as possible,
because parasitology and tropical vete-
rinary medicine was quite an efficient
combination during the last 30 - 35
years, not only in Berlin but in Holland
and other places too. We try very hard
not to separate this unit because if
tropical veterinary medicine is going to
be separated, there is the danger that it
will not be strong enough for the com-
petition with all the other disciplines,
which will lead to a shortage of money.
We have to keep this combined and
strong institute.

We have 5 permanent scientific staff
members in the Institute, in the De-
partment of Tropical Veterinary Medi-
cine we have 4 permanent staff and 2
scientific staff members on soft money
for the postgraduate studies and 2
colleagues working in our research unit
in Uganda. This is actually not too bad.

Mehlitz: More than 30 years ago the
Seminar for Tropical Veterinary Medi-
cine was established at the Free Uni-
versity together with the socalled Re-
search Unit, which was situated in
tropical countries. During this time
there was quite a lot of demand from
outside, people who wanted to go to
the tropics in the frame of development
aid or technical cooperation. Until now
about 357 students got their postgradu-
ate training. Most of them were Ger-
mans, but smce about 1972 also people
from developing countries who quali-
fied as a veterinarian in Germany came
for further training in tropical aspects
under the so-called reactivation pro-
gramme.

At present the situation is a bit diffi-
cult. The demand from tropical coun-
tries for getting young people from the

so-called developed world, especially
from Germany, is not as it was years
ago. Young people know about this
situation and we have to get some sort
of new system going, we have to esta-
blish some sort of postgraduate studies,
which are more focussed on the needs
which are expressed in, for instance,
Africa. We have to move from the
more traditional tropical veterinary
medicine to epidemiology and animal
health management. We hope that the
demand from outside for training and
the demand for jobs will increase du-
ring the next years.

What we actually do is to let the newly
qualified people know that we here in
Berlin have a new system, which leads
into the special fields of dairy or ani-
mal health management.

Another thing we try to change is the
qualification. The former certificate is
now a diploma. The students get a
degree which is actually recognized by
the university. So, 1995 is the first year
in which we start a diploma course,
which is the continuation of the old
seminar for tropical veterinary medici-
ne.

Miinstermann: Our institute, the De-
partment for Tropical Veterinary Medi-
cine offers postgraduate training for
German veterinarians, this is what Prof.
Mehlitz was talking about, but we also
offer postgraduate training courses for
veterinarians from abroad. This activity
started in 1989. We offer a Master
course programme for veterinarians
with at least 3 years of professional
working experience in developing coun-
tries in particular working field areas.
The first Master course focussed on
quot;Veterinary public health and meat
hygienequot;, while the second course was
on quot;Epidemiology and preventive vete-
rinary medicinequot;. We have decided to
continue this programme and will start
our third course in April, 1995 and
agcun train 16 veterinarians from a-
broad coming from 11 different coun-
tries. As the postgraduate veterinary
training programme is a unit by itself in
the institute, we now try to combine
the training for the German group and
the veterinarians from abroad by mat-
ching the subjects which are common
to both courses. Nevertheless, the main
topics for both groups differ because,
as Prof. Mehlitz already explained, the
diploma course is focussing on animal
health management and the master
course on epidemiology and preventive
veterin£u-y medicine.

Coming to the courses themselves: the
diploma course for German veterinari-
ans is now planned to run for 11
months. The first 5 months is the cour-
se work part, with as main topics quot;tro-
pical animal diseases complexquot;, quot;epide-
miologyquot;, quot;animal health managementquot;
and quot;economicsquot;, which we consider
very important in this context and
which has not really been considered in
the previous certificate courses. This
part will be followed by examinations
on the main subjects. Thereafter the
students, or rather the veterinarians,
will prepare their project work, which
consequently they will carry out, do the
on the ground research work, for three
months in a developing country.
We offer them certain topics, which we
think fit the subject. As I already said,
they do their preparation here and
subsequently go alone or in groups of
two to a project, mainly German deve-
lopment projects, and they stay there
for three months to carry out their
research. Thereafter they come back
and they finish by writing a thesis. The
manuscript will be corrected and mar-
ked, and consequently they have to
defend their thesis.

The Master course is running almost
parallel to the diploma course for the
first 5 months. After this period we
offer the students different optional
short term courses. They can select
either quot;laboratory diagnosticsquot; or quot;food
technology/food hygienequot; or quot;herd
health m£magementquot;. This is because
they come from different backgrounds
and different working fields, it is a
good chance for them to specialize,
within the course, in a certain topic. A-
gain, they will have oral examinations
on the main subjects of the course,
thereafter they have a period of three
months to prepare the project work,
which is already part of the Master
thesis work. It means that they have to
familiarize with the subject they have to
work on. Consequently, they do re-
search work at different institutes in
Berlin, not only at our institute, for 8
months. The students suggest topics
and we try to find a suitable working
place for them where they can follow
their own ideas. Alternatively, they can
bring their own field data, on which
they did research at home, and we will
help them here to analyze these data
and find a teacher to work it out. Well,
again they have about 2 months time to
write it all up and to sit for an oral
defence of their thesis. All in all it
takes 16 months and it is preceeded by
a 2 months language course, because
the participants need some basic Ger-
man, just for quot;survivingquot;.

Mehlitz: You come right to the criticid
point. I think we are still in some sort
of depression. The last 2,3 years it was
very difficult for young people to get
jobs overseas. I can say, this is a feeling
which I cannot prove, that we are co-
ming out of this depression right now.
The whole situation regarding animal
production in the tropics was under
review and criticism and now it is co-
ming out of this situation a little bit. I
think that within the next 2 to 4 years,
animal production within the big con-
text of improving agricultural systems
in the tropics will have better prospects
for the future. By providing these cour-
ses we look forward to this situation. I
think that the prospects for the young
people to get jobs overseas will be
better. But still there is a big problem.
The young people get a good course
and a good diploma and a good know-
ledge on relevant topics for their work
in the field or in the institutes, but they
are still young people. They have no
experience yet. If you look at the ad-
vertisements coming from FAO, WHO
and other international organizations,
they all look for people with 5 years, 6
years, 8 years experience. To get invol-
ved is extremely difficult. There is no
good mechanism to get a good start for
young people. We have to continue
negotiating with the governments so
that they recognize this problem. If
they do not realize it now, within the
next 5 - 10 years the expertise we have
got and will get in the future will some-
how disappear. This is a criticed point
and we have to work on this.

Munstermann: We did upgrade the
former quot;Tropenseminarquot;, focussing on
the needs of potential job donors,
which in our context has been in the
past and will be GTZ, the German
development cooperation agency. They
supported the upgrading of the course
to a degree level very strongly. They
pointed out what the real need is for
young experts who can start working
for example as a GTZ project assistant.
Usually this is where they start their

career. As Professor Mehlitz said: To
get tiiem in this small niche, and their
are not many jobs, one has to train
people according to the demands of
those jobs. We have switched the cour-
se focus from a more or less broad
tropical animal disease approach to
very specicdized subjects.

Mehhtz: Part of the answer you got
aheady. Nowadays there is quite a
number of good veterinarians in deve-
loping countries. Look at the imiversi-
ties in Africa with a veterinary curricu-
lum. Look at Kenya, look at Harare
and other universities, there are many,
many young veterinarians who just wait
to do their job. This actually is quite
different from the situation of 20 years
ago. Then, there were not enough
qualified veterinarians in Africa or
Asia. Of course, there were much more
jobs in this period for general veterma-
ry practitioners. There were many
Europeans going in. Now this niche has
gone and local vets are working there.
This is a very good situation, it is what
we want and we should not have bad
feelings about this, that our people can
not get a job. As you heard, we have to
focus on something else. We are now
in a period of development. We have to
tell the organizations, whether national
or international agricultural research
centers, that we have people here who
received a very special training to meet
the demands which have now the high-
est priority in the new system regarding
agricultural research in tropical veteri-
nary medicine, not only research but
development. I think this is most im-
portant.

Is there a conflict of interests between
educating the people from developing
countries and German people who want
to work in a developing country?

Münstermann: No, there is no conflict
at all. Foreign students come to Ger-
many when they already have a positi-
on. They have what we call a career
position in a ministry or a research
institute. These positions will definitely
never be occupied by Germans, so
there is no conflict. On the contrary, it
is very useful because these people in
training can become counterparts in a
concrete working situation.

Mehhtz: You can not see the situation
from the national point of view anymo-
re. Most of the projects are now finan-
ced by Brussels. They launch a tender
and everybody can apply. The national
organizations which are ui competition
have their own people in the back-
ground, their experts or people they
think are experts. There is of course a
competition in the European context
and this is a quite healthy development.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that
the institutions who are dealing with
tropical vetermary medicine or agricul-
ture in general in Europe come toge-
ther - and they do that already - to
discuss there problems and try to de-
sign projects or postgraduate training.
Such a joint effort is very difficult,
because of language and different inte-
rests, but we are under way. Maisons
Alfort and Edinburgh already have
joint courses. They try to exchange
some modules. We should come to the
situation where the European institu-
tions dealing with postgraduate training
or research should come together more
often, to identify their strength. They
can exchange their specialized know-
how and in the end the best quahty will
come out of this approach.

I would like to add another point which
I consider very important, not only for
research but especially for training.
Our feehng is that you can not develop
a good training programme if you do
not have your ongoing experience re-
garding current research. That is to say,
you have to have an antenna, a place
where you actually work in the tropics,
where you get a continuous input. The-
refore we are very happy to have a
research unit in Uganda, where two of
our colleagues are working together
vwth their counterparts at the Makerere
University. Of course, nowadays it is
very difficult due to financial con-
straints, but we try to keep this going.
Especiidly the postgraduate students
from the diploma course meet their
counterparts there to have a workshop
on special fields of epidemiology. They
can discuss their results and their ap-
proach. I think this is very important..
You know, you need to have your play-
ground, a place where the diseases are
actually occurring.

Yes, there are 2 programmes. One
programme is with the Ugandan Natio-
nal Research System. It is on trypano-
somiasis and the significance of chemo-
resistance of trypanosomiasis in the
peri-urban livestock production around
Kampala. The other project is a joint
venture with ILRI, the former ILRAD
and ILCA, and is situated more in the
western part of the country. It is a
programme on on-farm research on the
significance of calf mortahty in d2ury
production. We still seek for funds
from the European Union. The call for
project proposcds is just coming out
and we are in competition with many,
many, many others. So, we do not
know what comes out of it.

Tropical animal health and production at the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht

Utrecht University, one of the 14 universities in the Nether-
lands, includes 14 faculties. Its Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
is the only veterinary faculty in the Netherlands and, as a
result of its scientific and educational standards, it has been
accredited by the American and Canadian Veterinary Medical
Associations since 1973. Within the Faculty there are 11
departments. Research on tropical animal health is mainly
conducted by the Department of Infectious Diseases and
Immunology, but other departments are also actively involved
in collaborative research in e.g. Zimbabwe, Benin, Costa Rica
and Mozambique.

In 1987 the Faculty Office for Intemational Cooperation
started with the coordination and extension of the intema-
tional activities. In 1989 the quot;Committee for the Advancement
of Tropical veterinary Science (CATS) was established at the
Faculty. The main objective of CATS is the perpetuation and
promotion of research and education relevant to the tropics.
The organization of the Symposia on Tropical Animal H^th
and Production is an activity of BIC and CATS. From 1990
onwards a yearly symposium has been organized.

Vete- rinaiy Medicine, Utrecht University
1991: Research for devdopment: policies, priorities and

1993: Recent developments in veterinaiy epidemiology
1994: Application of biotechnology

Time: 09.00 - 16.00 hours
Location: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Yalelaan 1, De Uithof, Utrecht
The Netherlands

In 1995 the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine organizes the 6*\'
symposium on Tropical Animal Health and Production. The
organizing committee has selected as this years\' theme:
quot;Helminth diseases of ruminants: diagnosis, epidemiology
and controlquot;. Research on helminth diseases in the tropics
has been relatively limited in scope compared to research
efforts on infectious viral diseases and vector borne proto-
zoan diseases. However, diseases like haemonchiosis and
ostertagiosis have been shown to be responsible for major
economic losses in certain production systems. On the other
hand the indiscriminate use of anthelmintics has resulted in
severe drug resistance. Over recent years progress has been
made with the development of new tests for the diagnosis of
helminths and with the understanding of the epidemiology.
Steps have been taken in the development of means for
immunological control, strategic use of anthelmintics in
combination with land use planning has been introduced, and
moreover, the genetic basis for resistance to infection has
been demonstrated.

During the symposium attention will be paid to possibilities
and needs for the introduction of these new concepts into the
tropical areas.

J.HA. de Gooijer (treasurer)
Drs. T.J.G.M. Lam
Dr. R.W. Paling (secretary)
Dr. V.P.M.G. Rutten

08.30 - 09.00 h. Registration
First morning session: Opening
Part 1: General aspects of control

Current status of helminth infections in West Africa.
S.N. Chiejina (University of Nigeria, Nsukku, Nigeria).

Recent developments towards immuno-diagnosis and immu-
nization against Haemonchus.

H.D.F.H. Schallig and M.A.W. van Leeuwen (Utrecht Univer-
sity, Utrecht, The Netherlands) and D.Z. Moyo (University of
Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe).

Design and test of a strategic anthelmintic control scheme in
African village cattle.

J. Zinsstag (Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, Abi-
bjan, Ivory Coast), Ph. Ankers, L. Dempfle and M. Njie (Inter-
national Tiypanotolerance Centre, Banjul, The Gambia), J.
Kaufinann (University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland), P. Itty
(ETH Zentrum SOL, Zurich, Switzeriand) and K. Pflster
(Labor Pfister, Bern, Switzerland).

Genetic resistance against helminth infections in cattle, sheep
and goats in the tropics.

The epidemiology and control of gastrointestinal nematodes
of sheep in Nyandarua district of Kenya.
N. Maingi, S.M. Thamshorg, W.K. Munyua, J.M. Gathuma and
P. Nansen (University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya and Danish
Center for Experimental Parasitology, Copenhagen, Dan-
mark).

Control of nematodes in goats in the wet tropics.
P. Domy (Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine,
Antwerp, Belgium), C. Symoens (Brussels, Belgium) and J.
Vercruysse (University of Gent, Gent, Belgium).

Epidemiology and control of schistosomiosis in cattle.
/. de Bont (Zambian-Belgium Veterinary project. University
of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia) and J. Vercruysse (University of
Gent, Gent, Belgium).

I wish to attend the Symposium quot;Tropical Animal Health
and Production. Helminth diseases of mminants: diagnosis,
epidemiology and controlquot; on 6 October, 1995 at the Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine, De Uithof, Utrecht.

Munstermann: We thought in the long
run it would make more sense to offer
students the possibility to carry out
research work in the field on topics
which are really connected to their
home country situation. Rather than to
offer all of them a research topic here
in Berlin, which sometimes is a bit
theoretical. For instance, brucellosis is
not a topic in Germany any more, but
many of our students want to do re-
search on this disease. We really have
to dig in old files, but for them it is of
highest importance. Their interest and
what we can offer in certain cases do
not match. We started to think along
the line of interuniversity collaboration.
We have different partners with whom
we discussed how to structure and offer
such a course, to be carried out by 2
universities and eventually, after negoti-
ations with different partners we came
out with the proposal, which is now
accepted by the donor, through GTZ,
to carry out a split programme with the
University of Addis Abeba in Ethiopia.
It is now in the process of develop-
ment, contracts still have to be signed,
but it is in the pipeline and we are very
optimistic to get it off the ground very
well. Everybody is very enthusiastic
about it. We will start next year. The
principle is that over a period of 2
years students will come to do their
course work part, as well as preparing
the research period then they will go to
the faculty in Ethiopia for one year, or
in the countryside there, in one of the
collaborating institutions. There is
already a long list of potential collabo-
rating institutions. We now have the
chance to offer a very good Master
course in which the students gain a lot
of expertise. We already have a lot of
international expertise through coop-
eration with other universities and
institutions and there again we have the
chance to international collaboration
through former ILCA, now ILRI and
the University of Nairobi. We are also
thinking of a research period mainly to
take place there, plus some additional
workshops or seminars.
If the students do not want to do ap-
plied field research, but rather high-tec
laboratory research which can not be
done at their home institutions we can
offer the facilities. For the students this
situation will be much better than it is
now, because they can choose.
It is promised that this project round
will be for six years, so we can organize
3 Master courses. During this period
we will look for other international
donors, and I estimate this to be rather
easy.

Mehlitz: What makes this concept
attractive to the donor is that they see
that part of the activities go to the
developing countries. Hopefully in the
end all the activities will be taken over.
This is actually what the donors want
to see, sustainability.

Believe it or not, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht is not the only
institution in The Netherlands that has contacts in the veterinary field with develo-
ping countries. It seemed a good idea to the editorial board of EQUATOR to
widen our view and to focus from time to time on other institutions that are
working in closely related fields. This hopefully will provide our readers with a
better view on the Dutch veterinary effort in international cooperation. Moreover,
for some readers it may be an eye-opener that there are more possibilities for
work than just those offered via the Utrecht Veterinary Faculty. Therefore, when
one of our editors was invited to give a lecture at Larenstein International
Agricultural College, the opportunity was taken to interview one of the vets
working there about the College and its role in international cooperation.

The weather was almost tropical when
I set out for a trip to Deventer, a
middle-sized city in the eastern pro-
vince of Gelderland. I had been invited
by Bert Bosch to give a lecture to
year students about the use of com-
puters in herd health management in
Costa Rica. Bert worked for some time
abroad and is now a teacher at Laren-
stein International Agricultural College.

I was pleased to find an ancient, brick
building when I drove through the gate
and left my car in the yard. This cer-
tainly was a heritage from the Dutch
colonial past and, what was more, it
had not yet been pulled down and
replaced by one of those very efficient,
practical, easy-to-clean, well-isolated
and dreadfully ugly and impersonal
glass and steel constructions that are
considered to be the highlights of our

present day civilization.
Bert confirmed this when I commented
on it in his tiny office, hidden in one of
the reconstructed attics of the building.

quot;Certainly, the college was created early
this century. Our BSc program in Tro-
pical Agriculture started for instance in
1912 as a training programme for
estate managers in the former colonies.
But please, don\'t ask me too much
about history. I am working here for
almost three years now and I am happy
to have a good idea by now of how the
College is functioning at the present
time.quot;

Can you ffve me a quick overview of the
activities of the College, focusing on the
efforts in intemational cooperation?

quot;Well, let me first say something about
the College as a whole. Larenstein
International Agricultural College as it
is at present is the result of a merger
that took place in 1988 of four schools
of higher agricultural education. From
the original locations of Wageningen,
Boskoop, Velp and Deventer the latter
two remained It was decided that
Velp, where a new building was con-
structed, would be the main location
and that the old buildings here in De-

The entrance of
Larenstein International
College at Deventer
(Photo: Van Weeren)

venter would be restored. Here in
Deventer we have about 900 students,
divided over three BSc courses: on
Temperate Agriculture and Animal
Husbandry, focusmg mainly on the
Dutch situation, on International Agri-
cultural Trade and on Tropical Agricul-
ture. Besides these 4-year BSc courses
that are mainly attended by Dutch
students, we have five shorter courses
for foreign students: on Training in
Rural Extension and Teaching, on
Women, Extension Workers and Agri-
culture, on Tropical Animal Produc-
tion, on Farm Mechanization and on
Draught Animal Technology. Lately we
started 2 MSc courses.quot;

How long are those short courses for
foreign students, how many students
participate in each course, what kind of
people do attend these courses and who
pays for them?

quot;Let us start with the most interesting
question, where do all these people
come from. The only right answer is:
from all over the world. Nevertheless,
traditionally there is always a strong
representation from Africa with the
emphasis on East Africa: Kenya,
Tanzania, Uganda. Each course has 16-
20 participants and most of the courses
take 10 months. The course on
Women, Extension Workers and Agri-
culture is 8 months and the Draught
Animal Technology course is the
shortest one. This one takes only 3
months. As far as the financial side of
these educational programmes is con-
cerned: most of the students are recei-
ving grants from the Netherlands Min-
istry of Foreign Affairs. Some are paid
by project funds. You vwll understand
that the budget cuts made by this Min-
istry in The Hague are a great menace
to our efforts here.quot;

Do you receive many requests for these
courses and what are your criteria for
admitting students? Do you have any
idea about the results of these courses
or, to put it in other words, do you have
some feed-back from your graduates?

quot;We certainly have a lot of people ap-
plying for admission. We think it is
important that the people that are
following these courses will have a
position, after returning home, in which
they will have the opportunity to spread
the knowledge and skills they have
obtained. For instance, we would prefer
a rural extension worker to a local
manager on a middle-scale farm. We
are also looking for people that are not
too old, in general they must be under
40 years of age, and for people that can
use the course for improving their own
career. They shoidd also benefit them-
selves from the course.
Your question about the feed-back is
an interesting one. We just have held
our second refresher course quot;on the
spotquot; at the end of last year. This is a
new development we always wanted to
do, but which had not been approved
until recently by the Dutch Directorate-
General for International Cooperation
(DGIS). The last course was held at
Tamale, Ghana, at the Tamale Institute
for Cross-Cultural Studies and was
attended by alumni from Sierra Leone,
The Gambia, Cameroon, Nigeria and
Ghana. It was, just like the first course
in 1993 at Arusha, Tanzania, a great
success. Both staff and students were
very enthusiastic and we think this is an
excellent form to keep in contact with
our ex-students and update their knowl-
edge.quot;

Let us turn towards the regular pro-
gramme for Dutch students and to your
participation in the course. By the way,
how did you become involved in the
Larenstein teaching programme?

quot;To answer the last question first: I
have worked for Vétérinaires sans
Frontières in Afghanistan and when it
became a bit too dangerous there I
moved to Pakistan, just across the bor-
der. After that period I have worked in
Yemen and when I came home I could
start working here on a temporary
basis, because one of the vets working
here, Laurens Mol, had set off to a
project in Egypt. I had been working
abroad in small-scale animal husbandry
mostly. As you undoubtedly will know,
animal husbandry in those countries
has a completely different role in
society when compared with the situ-
ation here. Over there animal hus-
bandry is part of almost everybody\'s
life as virtually everyone owns some
animals. In Holland, and in most parts
of Western Europe, animal husbandry
is more and more becoming a high-
tech branch of agro-business, alien to
most people, focusing on enormous
yields per animal and offering jobs to
only a very limited number of people. I
myself do not feel very attracted to that
type of animal husbandry and I thought
it a good idea to work here for some
time as I could keep in touch with my
field of interest.

As for the first part of your question,
my job is mainly teaching Animal
Health, both in the regular programme
and in the short-term courses for
foreign students we talked about
earUer. The regular course in Tropical
Agriculture consists of 8 semesters. I
participate in all of them, except for
the 6quot;^ semester, which is a practical

How difficult was it for you to become a
teacher here. Did you have to study a lot
yourself? Another thing I would like to
know is how you are teaching Animal
Health. The classic Utrecht way or do
you have another approach?

quot;You guessed right. In the beginning it
was pretty hard. As you know, the
Utrecht course in Veterinary Medicine
in my days did not spend a single hour
on teaching capacities and I just had to
learn how to teach. Besides, a lot of
knowledge that had not been used for
quite a while had to be revived. I also
had to orientate myself more broadly
on animal husbandry, not just only on
diseases and disease-related problems,
also on management aspects such as
fodder crops, grassland management
and so on. It took me about a year to
get to the level I wanted.
This indirectly also answers the second
part of your question. I am certainly
not teaching the classic way, only focus-
ing on diseases. The students should
learn to acquire insight in the factors
causing diseases or other health pro-
blems. Almost all health problems are
multifactorial and can be influenced by
good management. Epidemiology is an
important theme and, related with this
discipline, the possibihties and impossi-
bilities of various prevention and eradi-
cation programmes.quot;

What about the motivation of your stu-
dents. Do you see differences between
Dutch students and the ones from
abroad?

quot;In general, all students are very moti-
vated. It is funny tot see that the type
of people is the same as in Utrecht.
There also the students attending the
course on Tropical Animal Health and
Husbandry are somewhat different
from the others: more independent,
more critical. Here you see the same
differences between Tropical Agricul-
ture and the other two BSc courses
that are taught here. It is often striking
to see the change in mentality that
occurs after the practical training
period in the tropics during the
semester. This period is highly motiva-
ting and students certainly do come
back more mature than when they left.
The foreign students are very moti-
vated. Of course some suffer a dip,
mostly somewhere in December, due to
problems in adaptation. However,
almost all do very well and there is
virtually no drop-out during the
courses. They are very eager to learn
something and they really appreciate
the things we can offer them. They do
not yet take everything for granted as a
lot of the Dutch students do. That is
very stimulating for the staff.quot;

It is nice to hear that your students are
very motivated, as you yourself clearly
are. But what about the Dutch students,

quot;I am sorry to say that that is a very
difficult item. It is really hard to get a
job in the tropics nowadays when you
have just graduated from a College as
this one. By the way, that is the same
everywhere, it certainly is as difficult
for veterinarians who have recently
graduated from Utrecht Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine.quot;

quot;Well, some of them really go to the
tropics. Some start in volunteer jobs
that are hardly paid to get the expe-
rience that is nowadays always required
by employers such as the FAO, UN ,
DGIS (the Dutch Directorate-General
for International Cooperation), or
other organizations working in this
field. Others get local contracts based
upon contacts they made during their
periods of practical training in the field.
As most of the students in Tropical
Agriculture can be characterized by a
large degree of flexibility, a lot of them
find work in other areas. Either in
Holland or abroad. There is a growing
number that is finding work in the
former Soviet-dominated part of
Europe. The percentage of jobless
students is not greater than that in the
course on Temperate Agriculture and
Animal Husbandry. Perhaps we need a
revision and should the divisions go to
one coiu-se on International Agriculture
and Animal Husbandry, with various
disciplines focusing for instance on the
Dutch situation, the situation in East-
ern Europe and in the tropics.quot;

A last question. What about your per-
sonal future? You said the job here was
temporary.

quot;Yes, it is. And though I like the work
here, I think that is a good thing as I
myself feel too young to stay here
indefinitely. I am looking for a possi-
bility in the field. It is there where my
main interest lies. I will also get more
experience then and maybe one day I
will be back teaching. Here, or in
another place.quot;

College is a dynamic institution with a
friendly character, very welcoming to
foreign people, firmly built on a great
tradition but with an open eye to the
future. In my feehng the College plays
an important and very good role in the

Dutch efforts in international cooper-
ation. The input from the veterinary
profession is not that large in man-
power, but it is essential and of very
good quality.

When I drove back to Utrecht that
extremely sunny afternoon late in April
with the roof of the car open, it really
felt a bit like being in the tropics...

The section RECENT PUBLICATIONS is included in the Enghsh issues of EQUATOR. Scientific pubhcations of the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and other research institutes in the Netherlands, relevant to Uvestock production and health
in the tropics as weU as titles of papers by Dutch veterinary scientists working on animal health and production topics in
relation to developing countries, wiU be included. Please inform the editor of your pubhcations so we can bring them to the
attention of the readers of EQUATOR. For reprints contact the authors directly, their addresses can be obtained from the
editorial office (Office for International Cooperation, P.O. Box 80.163, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands).

PinelU, E., KilUck-Kendrick, R., Wagenaar, J., Bernadina, W., Real, G. del and Ruitenberg, J. (1994). Cellular and humoral
immune responses in dogs experimentally and naturally infected with Leishmania infantum. Infection and Immunity 62:
229-235.

Uilenberg, G. (1994). Quelques reflexions sur les priorités de recherche en santé animale en Afrique. Revue d\'Elevage et de
Médecine vétérinaire des Pays Tropicaux 47: 267-270.

Wagenaar, J.A. (1994). Leptospirosis - diagnosis and pathogenesis. PhD thesis. Utrecht University. Utrecht.

Weijkamp, K., Faghihi, S.M., Nijmeijer, S.M., Witkamp, R.F. and Miert, A.S.J.PA.M. van (1994). Oral bioavailabihty of
sulphamethoxydiazine, sulphathiazole and sulphamoxole in dwarf goats. The Veterinary Quarterly 16: 33-37.

Kwa, S.G. (1994). The molecular basis of chemotherapeutic resistance in the parasite nematode Haemonchus contortus. PhD
thesis. Utrecht University. Utrecht.

Brand, A., Schukken, Y.H., Goodger, W.J. and Hoogeveen, H. (1994). A dairy herd health and production management
protocol for hygienic milk quahty. Proceedings XVIII World Buiatrics Congress pp. 177-185.

Dijkhuizen, AA., Huirne, R.B.M., Jalvingh, A.W. (1994). Economic analysis of anunal diseases and their control. Proceedings
7th ISVEE-congress. The Kenya Veterinarian 18: 13-14.

Houben, E.H.P., Dijkhuizen, AA. and Huirne, R.B.M. (1994). Economic optimaUzation of decisions on treatment and culling
of dairy cows v^th clinical mastitis. Proceedings 7th ISVEE-congress. The Kenya Veterinarian 18: 436-438.

Schukken, Y.H. and Brand, A. (1994). Health management in herds. Veterinary Research 25: 160-164.

Hesselink, J.W. (1994). Pseudopregnancy in the goat. PhD thesis, Utrecht University. Utrecht.

Kruip, Th.A.M., Boni, R., Wurth, Y.A., Roelofsen, M.W.M. and Pieterse, M.C. (1994). Potential use of ovum pick-up for
embryo production and breeding in cattle. Theriogenologv 42: 674-684.

Gueye, A,, Jongejan, F., Mbengue, Mb., Diouf, A. and UUenberg. G. (1994). Essai sur le terrain d\'un vaccin atténué contre la
cowdriose. Revue d\'Elevage et ^ Médecine vétérinaire des Pays Tropicaux 47: 401-404.

Jongejan, F. (1994). Development and transfer of biotechnological methods for diagnosis of tick-borne pathogens with special
reference of Cowdria ruminantium and Theileria annulata. In: Use rf applicable biotechnology methods for diagnosing
haemoparasites. Proceedings FAO expert consultation. Merida, Mexico, 1993. pp. 126-135.

Jongejan, F. and Uilenberg, G. (1994). Ticks and control methods. Revue scientifique et technique d\'Office international des
Epizooties 13: 1201-1226.

Schetters, T. (1995). Vaccine development from a commercial point of view. Proceedings 9th International Veterinary
Hemoparasitic Disease Conference. Tick-borne hemoparasitic diseases rf livestock. Merida, Mexico. Veterinary
Parasitoloev 57: 267-275.

Rogers, D.J., Hendrickx, G. and Slingenbergh, J.H.W. (1994). Tsetse flies and their control. Revue scientifique ^ technique
d\'Office international des Epizooties 13: 1075-1124.

This review was commissioned by the
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische
Zusammenarbeit (GTZ, Germany
Agency for Technical Cooperation) as
part of its programme on integrated
planning of livestock development in
marginal areas. This rose out of con-
cern that conventional quot;participatoryquot;
land use planning based on village
territories is excluding pastoralists.

Planning with pastoralists: PRA and
more by Ann Waters-Bayer and Wolf-
gang Bayer, gives an overview of par-
ticipatory approaches and methods for
planning pastoral development projects.
It contains an annotated and indexed
bibliography of over 100 reports on
participatory enquiry and planning, a
description of rapid methods used in
pastoral settings and a critical analysis
of experiences with these methods. The
annex contains names and addresses of
individuals and organisations which are
sources of further information about
participatory planning methods related
to livestock-keeping.

As most of the literature on Participa-
tory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and simi-
lar approaches deals with settled crop
farmers, GTZ supported a concerted
effort to find and analyze experiences,
largely in unpublished reports, of par-
ticipatory situation analysis and
planning specifically related to the
mobile assets (livestock) of mobile
people. The review focuses on Africa,
but covers also relevant experiences
elsewhere in the world.

This stat-of-the-art review will be of
interests to both governmental and
non-governmental development agency
staff, policy makers and training institu-
tions, particularly but not only in Afri-
ca. The English version (pp. 153)
appeared in December 1994; the
French version is in preparation.

The book can be obtained free of
charge form GTZ Division 422, Attn:
Annette von Lossau, POB 5180, D-
65726 Eschborn, Germany (Fax 49-
6196-796103).

This section contains vacancy announ-
cements which the editorial board
considers to be of possible interest to
Dutch veterinarians. Besides vacancies
that will be taken from Vacatureblad
Internationale Samenwerking, Tijd-
schrift voor Diergeneeskunde, Veterin-
ary Record, Intro vacatures (RPD
Advies/ Ministry of Internal Affairs)
etc., there will be room for personnel
advertisements. For further information
about the vacancies please contact the
institution or company directly.

We are seeking a veterinary graduate
for a permanent position as project
Manager in the Republic of the Congo.
We have a rescue centre based m Braz-
zaville for young gorillas and a release
site in the forest for older animals.

Ideally, the successful candidate will
have: some experience in the tropics;
ability to handle five or more expatriate
staff and 30 Congolese staff; diplomatic
and administrative skills and ability to
manage finances. Good or fluent
spoken French is essential. Some fami-
liarity with tropical diseases of pri-
mates, especially humans, isnbsp;useful.
Ability to work under stressful condi-
tions, including military rule, isnbsp;a pre-
requisite.

Write to: Chris W. Furley, Veterinary
Director, Howletts Wild Animal Park,
Bekesbourne Lane, Bekesbourne, Can-
terbury, Kent CT4 5EL, UK.

Course on: Artificial insemination in pigs.
Subjects: Collection of semen; Evaluation
and processing of semen in the laboratory;
Insemination and sow production control;
Organization of an AI station and Selection
of breeding stock. Fees including board and
lodging: 6,500. Information: IPC Livestock
Barneveld College, Dep. of International
Studies and Cooperation Programmes, P.O.
Box 64, 3770 AB Barneveld (Tel.: 31.3420.-
14881, telefax: 31.3420.92813).

European Society for Veterinary Virology
\'Symposium on IBR and other ruminant
Herpesvirus infections\'. Information: Prof. E.
Thiiy, Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medi-
cine, University of Liège, Sart Tilman B 43
bis, Liège (Telefax: 32,41.664261).

Course \'Wildlife Capture Course for Vet-
erinary Surgeons\' are organized in the Kru-
ger National Park by veterinarians from the
Price Forbes Chair in Wildlife, University of
Pretoria and the National Parks Board.
Training and practical experience in the
capture of a variety of free-ranging species
including elephant, lion, buffalo and ante-
lope. Costs £ 650.00. Information: tel.: 27.-
12.5298077, telefax: 27.12.5298312. Maxi-
mum 10 participants.

21 August, 1995 - 6 June, 1996.
International course on quot;Tropical Animal
Production. Organized by: Larenstein Inter-
national Agricultural College Deventer.
Entry requirements: Diploma or degree in
Animal Science and minimal 5 years relevant
professional experience. Programme: Inte-
grated approach to feed production, nutri-
tion and reproduction of farm animals; ma-
nagement of farms and farm units; farm eco-
nomics and extension approaches; farming
systems analysis; rapid rural appraisal and an
international excursion. The approach is pro-
blem-oriented to enhance the problem solv-
ing capacity of the participants. Tuition fee:
Dfl. 9,675; Board and lodging: Dfl.17,000. In-
formation and registration: Registry Laren-
stein lA.C., P.O. Box 7, 7400 DA Deventer
(Tel.: 31.5700.84654, telefax: 31.5700.-

28 August - 1 September, 1995.
The Second international conference on tick-
borne pathogens at the host-vector interface
(THOI); Tick-host-pathogen interactions: A
global perspective. Organized by: Onderste-
poort Veterinary Institute and Medical Uni-
versity of South Africa. The goal of the
conference is to create a forum to review the
current status on the biology and ecology of
ticks and tick-bome animal pathogens, espe-
cially those of Africa. A 4-day post confe-
rence workshop on ticks and tick-bome dis-
ease identification and diagnostics is envis-
aged at Onderstepoort under the auspices of
the Office International des epizootics. In-
formation and registration: Ms. T. Wilhelmi,
Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Private
Bag X05, Onderstepoort 0110, Rep. of South
Africa (Tel. 27.12.5299329, telefax: 27-
.12.556573, Email: tamara@moon.ovi.ac.za).

World Veterinary Congress. XXV Congress
of the World Veterinary Association and XX
Congress of the World Small Animal Veteri-
nary Association. Theme: Advancing Veteri-
nary Profession in a Changing World. For
inquiries regarding a request for the first
announcement and registration procedures
contact: The Secretariat WVC, c/o Sankei
Convention, Sankei Building lOF, 1-7-2,
Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100 (Tel.:
81.3.32732084, telefax: 81.3.32732439).

Symposium of the World Association of
Wildlife Veterinarians (concurrent with
WVA Congress). Information: Dr. Wilber
Amand, Chairman, WAWV, Zoological
Society of Philadelphia, 3400 West Girard
Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19104-1196, USA.

25-29 September, 1995.
8°* International Conference of Institutes of
Tropical Veterinary Medicine: Livestock
production and diseases in the tropics: Live-
stock production and human welfare. Orga-
nized by: Association of Institutions of tropi-
cal Veterinary Medicine (AITVM). Program-
ma: Plenary sessions with papers of invited
speakers and six workshops introduced by
brief communications and posters on: Peri-
urban livestock production; Epidemiology
and socio-economics in different livestock
systems; Impact of livestock on the environ-
ment; Veterinary public health in different
livestock systems; The role of women in
animal husbandry and Target oriented trai-
ning needs, demands and facilities in less
developed countries. For registration and
submission of brief communications: Prof.
Dr. D. Mehlitz, Institute for Parasitology
and Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Free Uni-
versity of Berlin, Koeningsweg, 14163 Berlin.

6quot; International symposium: Tropical Ani-
mal Health and Production. Theme: \'Hel-
minth diseases of ruminants: diagnosis,
epidemiology and control\'. Organized by the
Committee for the Advancement of Tropical
veterinary Science (CATS) and the Office
for International Cooperation of the Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht Univer-
sity. Registration before 15 September, 1995:
Office for International Cooperation, Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine. P.O. Box 80.163,
3508 TD Utrecht (Telefax: 31.30.531815,
E-mail bic@bic.dgk.ruu.nl).

9 October - 24 November, 1995.
5* International Course quot;Introduction to
Herd Health and Epidemiologyquot;. Organized
by the Office for International Cooperation
and the Department of Herd Health and
Reproduction of the Faculty of Veterinaiy
Medicine. Programme: Introduction to herd
health and the VAMPP-programme for
fertility control of daity cattle; Introduction
to veterinary epidemiology; Fertility analysis
and aspects of reproduction like gynaecolo-
gy, animal husbandry, artificial insemination
and embryo transfer; claw disorders; Mas-
titis: diagnosis, epidemiology, therapy and
prevention; Calf rearing and nutrition.
Course fee: Dfl. 7,500,-. Closing date for
registration 1 August, 1995. Information and
registration: Office for International Cooper-
ation, P.O. Box 80.163, 3508 TD Utrecht
(Tel.: 31.30532116, telefax: 31.30.531815,
E-mail: bic@bic.dgk.ruu.nl).

International Course on Dairy Husbandry
and Milk Processing. Programme: Dairy
development, Animal husbandry, Milkpro-
cessing, Dairy production. Teaching and
extension. Dairy farm management, Small
scale milk processing. Closing date: 1 Octo-
ber 1995. Tuition fees Dfl. 7,100,-. Informa-
tion and application; IPC Livestock, Dairy
Training Centre Friesland, P.O. Box 85, 9062
ZJ Oenkerk (Tel.; 31.5103.61562, telefax:
31.5103.61628).

EQUATOR is a periodical of
the Office for International
Cooperation of the Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht
University.

EQUATOR is published bi-
monthly. The January, May and
September issues of EQUATOR
are published in English.

faloes. Seventy per cent of these are
low producing locally kept cattle. The
government owns several very big dairy
farms where military veterinarians are
employed. Of course there is no pig
industry and the poultry industry is
fully privatised. If you divide the num-
ber of head of cattle by the number of
veterinarians you will find an outcome
that indicates an intensive care system!
Of course this is not true, but it is a
fact that you need only one tenth of
this number of veterinarians. Because
they have not much to do, and earn
only one fifth of the salary they should
earn, you cannot blame them for con-

Laurens Mol studied veterinary medicine in Utrecht and graduated in 1966. Pro-
fessor Wilson of the Institute for Tropical and Protozoan Diseases interested a
group of students for research on tsetse control in Nigeria. Through him these
students - Laurens was one of them - got international contacts, which is quite
remarkable in a time only few people were interested in the tropics.
Dr. Mol\'s first job was in Kenya, as an expert paid by the Netherlands\' Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. This appointment as an expert was a big surprise. In his own
words: quot;Can you unagine, I just graduated and was green as grass...quot;
After a long career abroad he returned to the Netherlands and found a job at a
milk cooperation in Brabant. There, he realized he could not stand the Dutch
mentality anymore, especially the commercial approach and the huge appUcation
of veterinary drugs. After a year he got the opportunity to work at Utrecht Uni-
versity\'s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, at the Zootechnics Department, which
was at the same time his baptism of fire in teaching. This was quite a nasty blow
because he found out that teaching was not easy. Just like in Kenya where he was
appointed as expert, right after graduation, he was now appointed as a teacher,
without any experience in this field. After two years he switched to Deventer
Agricultural College where he taught tropical animal husbandry for several years.
In 1992 he appUed for a position in Egypt. He went there first on a short mission,
for project orientation, after which he settled in Dokki for a few years. Now
Laurens Mol is back in the Netherlands to talk about his experiences in the Food
Sector Development programme.

quot;The past forty years Egypt suffered a
lot imder the socialist regime. Veteri-
nary services were free of charge, even
therapy. Because of this system all the
farmers, big and small scale, are spoilt.
People with a university diploma were
guaranteed of employment. This is a
major problem. Egypt has 21,000 vete-
rinarians, of which 16,000 are employed
by the government. There are 8 univer-
sities where veterinary medicine is
taught. The theoretical level varies and
most of the students, when graduating,
have no practical experience. There are
5,000,000 head of cattle, including buf-

centrating on quot;private businessquot;. These
private businesses cause a cutthroat
competition. The big issue is: quot;How can
you make moneyquot;, because the farmer
cannot pay for your services. They
make money by selling veterinary
drugs. This results in a huge drug sup-
ply without quot;veterinary servicequot;. Not
totally without, but the service is very
Umited.

One should realise that drugs are not
used in fattening, like in Western
Europe, but for all kind of diseases
antibiotics are prescribed, without
questioning the necessity of the pre-
scription. Until recently the government
controlled the drug supply, but many
veterinarians have their private clients.
To give an example. Last week I was at
a farm where they breed guinea fowl
and the people found out I was a vete-
rinarian. They had a problem. One of
the guinea fowl laid eggs but would not
hatch these. The farmer did not ask me
to diagnose the problem but asked for
a prescription! I explained to the far-
mer how guinea fowl behave. These
birds need free space, which is a pre-
requisite for reproduction. After adap-
ting the housing the problem would be
solved.

I worked in two projects: the Pan Afri-
can Rinderpest Campaign (PARC) of
which the Director of the Veterinary
Service is officially the coordinator, and
a livestock project which aimed mainly
at small scale farmers. The livestock
project employed four professionals: a
fodder speciadist who works on fodder
and animal feed production, a milk
hygiene and marketing specialist who is
responsible for milk conservation, engi-
neering and processing on a small scale
level and the marketing of the dairy
products, and a manager who is res-
ponsible for the economic management
of the project. I am responsible for the
animal health, to begin with artificial
insemination.

Furthermore there is a programme
manager to coordinate the activities
described above and an administrator.
So, in all we are there with six foreig-
ners for the quot;Food Sector Development
programmequot;.

Beside the livestock component there is
a component quot;Edible oilquot; and a huge
quot;Credit linequot;. This is a credit system
based on privatisation. It is European
Union funded. This budget is used for
private loans to farmers in the Uvestock
sector. Loans are offered at an accepta-
ble interest rate and under favourable
conditions. The project coordinates the
activities. Farmers who apply for a loan
don\'t come to us but have to go to a
bank, because we do everything to-
gether with counterparts. If the quot;busi-
ness planquot; is economically sound every-
one can get a loan, also quot;big farmersquot;.
The bank decides on commercial
grounds.

With the veterinary department we
started with rinderpest control. We
were able to prove that in all probabi-
lity there is no rinderpest virus in
Egypt anymore. The last case of rinder-
pest in Egypt was reported in 1986. But
according to the story this was a
subclinical case. As long as you vacci-
nate it is impossible to differentiate
between immunity due to vaccination
and immunity due to infection. There-
fore our advice to PARC was to stop
the vaccinations. But this is politically
impossible. In my opinion we are fight-
ing a ghost, a real ghost. I mean, you
see nothing, but people claim its exist-
ence.

Because there was nothing to investi-
gate in cattle, we did a survey in sheep,
which were never vaccinated. Sheep can
be infected by cattle. On the basis of
the results of this survey we were not
able to demonstrate the existence of
the rinderpest virus in sheep. For the
third year in a row we advised the
director of the veterinary service to
stop rinderpest vaccination. Although
we could demonstrate that immunity in
cattle is high enough to interrupt the
virus circulation and that sheep are
quot;virus freequot;, the veterinary service is
very afraid something might happen.
You can only do two things, either
vaccinate properly or stop vaccinating.
In my opinion we should stop vaccina-
ting now to see if the virus exists in
Egypt. Furthermore if the mfection is
subclinical there have to be some ani-
mals with rinderpest like symptoms.
Therefore we organized an information
campaign on rinderpest symptoms for
veterinarians. We did a clinical survey
and found nothing again. So the only
reasonable thing to do is to stop vacci-
nating.

One and a half year ago I started to
talk about epidemiology, to structure
and build an epidemiological unit. I
also discussed the fact that the veteri-
narians had to provide clinical services.
To activate the ponderous and ineffec-
tive Veterinary Department and re-
structure the veterinary services you
have to reduce the tasks of the depart-
ment and combine this process with
privatisation. The veterinarians have to
work on a private basis. But it is im-
possible to get them out of the veteri-
nary service, no matter what a profi-
table offer you make them. The vete-

rinary service offers them an infrastruc-
ture for their sidelines. It took me
some time to find that out.

I have requested for an expert to do a
study on the subject. Well, the expert
came and on the basis of his study we
have submitted a proposal to the Euro-
pean Union for the privatisation of
veterin£iry services. The privatisation
project consists of an early retirement
scheme and a restructuring of veterina-
ry services by gradually reducing the
number of activities that in fact belong
to the private sector, like artificial inse-
mination and clinical work. The thou-
SEinds of clinics all over the country
have to be privatized. This is a very
difficult process and I do not want to
be the veterinarian to execute the pro-
ject, I am more a technician than a
diplomate.

Now I would like to talk about the
privatisation in the rinderpest and epi-
demiology progremime. I use the rin-
derpest model to accomplish an infra-
structure for epidemiological work. It is
my philosophy to start small scale and
build up something, rather than to start
big. We have divided the central unit in
two units: quot;the epidemiological pro-
cessing unitquot; and quot;the epidemiological
field unitquot;. The director of the veteri-
nary service is directly supervising the
heads of these units. In ten years time
the veterinary department should be an
epidemiology unit. All the branches
that work in the private sector should
be self supporting by then. This will be
a gradual process.

We needed a local person in each
governorate to provide information and
we needed people in the department to
process data. At the moment we have
provided a basic education to 33
people. The people are selected on
mainly two criteria: they have to speak
English very well and be under 35
years of age. This was a novelty in
Egypt. Another novelty was that we
held interviews to select the candidates.
We selected 66 people out of 120 can-
didates. They all took a preliminary
course to prepare them for the epide-
miology course in Reading in the UK.
This two week preliminary course con-
sisted of statistics, economy and an
English language course. In the two
weeks period we selected the best par-
ticipants to follow the course in Rea-
ding. The participants were very enthu-
siastic. At the moment we are in the
phase of installing a computer in each
governorate. There are 27 governorates
with each two people, a local processor
and a local field man who knows how
to design a field survey, how to take
samples, how to sample at random.
These people require a follow up train-
ing. The Egyptians had the illusion that
once the staff was educated the project
would be ready to start. I advised them
to develop an information system first.
If you start by collecting data, no mat-
ter what subject, you start building a
data structure. The local staff becomes
experienced in data processing. Perhaps
the results will be poor at first, so
what? We will not use this material to
base economical analyses on, we consi-
der it a finger exercise initially.
It makes me feel good to see what can
be reached in one and a half year. I
mean, we now have an infrastructure
for epidemiological research. This is
the first time that I saw such irrevoca-
ble results in a project as in Egypt. Of
my former projects almost nothing
remained.

Our aim is to leave a sustainable infra-
structure. The project started with 5
target areas. The farmers have to take
over ideas we provide. We have no
intention to force our ideas on the
farmers. If some ideas die out because
the farmers are not interested, we leave
it to that. We are no missionaries. We
only show alternatives. If other possibi-
lities are viable they can go ahead. In
the mean time the number of target
areas is enlarged to 9. Now, about 40
Egyptian veterinarians work m these
target areas in the private artificial
insemination sector. These have to
inform a quot;central levelquot;, so parallel to
the epidemiological system we have to
build another veterinary infrastructure.
It is important that we evaluate their
A.I. results, not in the context of gene-
tical improvement but more to get an
idea on efficiency. We still have no
basic information on cattle reproduc-
tion in Egypt. We require information
on the efficiency of the inseminators,
but also on the efficiency of the system.
The most remarkable difference with
the European mentahty is that the
people here do not think economically.
So we try to make them aware of the
different aspects of privatisation during
workshop like training sessions. You
should not expect immediate results.
You have to provide a lot of support
and follow up. This last aspect also
causes some difficulties, because to
provide follow up training you need an
insight in their results, which they are
not always willing to provide.

A lot of veterinary problems could not
be tackled. For instance mastitis. I
mentioned before the unlimited use of
antibiotics. The farmers should be
made aware that mastitis is a milking
problem. Another thing is claw pro-
blems. The farmers do not consider
claw problems as problems because
they think it is normal. But claw trim-
ming is way beneath the position of a
veterinarian. They consider me an idiot
when I give a demonstration.

Within but also outside the project we
have only good relationships. The Ger-
man programme manager does an
excellent job. This is a project quot;sans
rancunequot;. A factor of influence is of
course that all expatriate staff members
are old hands. Egypt does not accept
junior foreign staff. My grey hair is half
of my quality......quot;

quot;The course consists of three semesters.
In the first semester the emphasis is on
teaching epidemiology and statistics,
the second semester continues in that
field, but also offers a course on agri-
cultural economy, given by Prof. Aalt
Dijkhuizen of the Wageningen Agricul-
tural University. In this semester the
students also start their own research
project they have to conclude before
the end of the course. In general, there
are two days with lectures per week
and the remaining days are for studying
hterature, preparing the homework we
give them and so on. The third semes-
ter is largely practical with only httle
theoretical lectures. The students are
performing their research project and
have to prepare their paper. One major
pubhcation is a prerequisite to end the
course with good resultsquot;.

You mention that the students have to
do research. Your main interest and the
interest of many others in the Depart-
ment of Herd Health is mastitis. Does
this mean that all MSc students are
doing their research projects in this area?

quot;Oh, no! You are right that this is an
area of special interest, but we cannot
offer everybody a good subject for a
research project that will fit in the
framework of the master course. They
are studying very different subjects.
One of the projects is for instance on
mortality in dogs after hepatic surgery.

This project is supervised by Prof.
Freek van Sluijs of the Department of
Clinical Sciences of Companion Ani-
mals. There is a good cooperation with
many staff in the Faculty, a cooperation
we would like to extend even furtherquot;.

In this course you have students from
Africa, Asia and Latin America. Isn\'t it
difficult to design a course that suits
them all? There must be some difference
in the basic level of your students and
perhaps even differences in scientific
approach due to a different cultural
background?

quot;You are partly right and partly wrong.
Of course there are differences. How-
ever, everybody has to forget the classi-
cal clinical way they were taught ve-
terinary medicine and has to focus on a
new, quantitative way of thinking. This
is new to everybody, whether you gra-
duated in Peking, Utrecht or Tombouc-
tou (if there were a veterinary faculty
in this latter place). So, in a certain
way everybody starts from scratch.
What is important and leads to some
differences during the course is the
mathematical abihty of the studentsquot;.

Do you notice any problems with the
students\'s adaptation to the Dutch sys-
tem of teaching at university level. I
(RvW), for instance have worked for a
few years at the Costa Rican Veterinary
School and I noticed quite a different
atmosphere there, a bit more relaxed. Do
your students feel it the other way
round?

The Master of Science course on Veterinary Epidemiology and Herd Health at
the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University has been continuing for
a year now and is entering its final semester. This was a reason for EQUATOR to
focus on this international activity par excellence of the Utrecht Faculty. Merel
Langelaeu and René van Weeren interviewed the initiator of the course, Dr. Ynte
Hein Schukken, and three of the participating students: Giovanna Bulgarelh from
the Central American state of Costa Rica, and a couple from Thailand: Witaya
Suriyasathaporn and Wanna Mahapokai.

quot;Sure, many people had to get accus-
tomed to our rather hasty and direct
way of working. In our culture to a
large extent only results count. For
most students, after the exciting start in
September, the dip comes in late
autumn and the beginning of the win-
ter. The chmate must play an impor-
tant role too. However, they adapt
rather quickly, and I must say that the
Office for International Cooperation
also is of great help when there are
practical problems. Wanna and Witaya
may tell you more about that for their
case was a very special one. Neverthe-
less some people have adaptation pro-
blems. One student for instance bought
a diary for the first time in his life
halfway the first semester. For him this
was a huge step, for us it is unthinkable
to live without one!quot;

quot;The first international group had the
highest motivation. When we started
that course some years ago, it was not
an official course, leading to an official
masters certificate. The official recog-
nition by Utrecht University did not
come until halfway the course. That
course was mtended for and attended
by people who had a keen interest in
epidemiology and wanted to nnprove
themselves m this field. There were
three of them. A German student who
later did her PhD in bacteriology,
someone from a big pharmaceutical
company who is now the head of the
department for clinical trials, and a
practitioner from Switzerland who had
the largest large animal practice of the
country and was fascinated by epidemi-
ology. He is now the president of the
Swiss Epidemiological Society. The
present group is good too. However, at
the start of the course you notice that
some people who have been sent by
their project, miss a strong personal
motivation. Fortunately you can see
that the motivation is growing as the
course proceeds.quot;

It must be fascinating to organize a
course like this, but it will cost an awful
lot of your time. Doesn\'t it interfere too
much with your other occupations?

quot;Well, the idea of organizing a course
like this was born from the never end-
ing flow of requests from abroad for
individual training. We thought it more
efficient to make a special course for 5

to 10 students at one time. In fact, it
cost me a lot of time to organize the
first courses. But now much of the
organizational work is done by Dr.
Mirjam Nielen. She plays an important
role in the course and is actually invest-
ing more time in it than I am. I really
appreciate her help and I am convinced
the students are of the same opinionquot;.

Witaya Suriyasathaporn and Wanna
Mahapokai are a Thai veterinary
couple, who live in a small apartment
in Bilthoven with their 6 months old
child that was born here in The Neth-
erlands. They both graduated from the
veterinary faculty of Chulalongkom
University in Bangkok. The veterinary
education in Thailand is six years like
in The Netherlands, and is organised in
more or less the same way. A diffe-
rence however is the larger number of
students (10) per veterinarian in the
last year of the studies. Wanna and
Witaya are both employed by the ve-
terinary faculty of Khon Kaen Univer-
sity. Wanna worked at the companion
animal surgery and Witaya at the large
animal reproduction and physiology
department. They came to Utrecht to
do the Master of Science course on
epidemiology and after that they will
continue their research to prepare a
PhD thesis, also at the Faculty of Ve-
terinary Medicine in Utrecht. When
they complete these studies they will
return to Thailand to continue their
work at their faculty.

had an unexpected advocate: quot;A
Swedish professor from the faculty in
Uppsala, who works at the veterinary
faculty in Thailand, recommended the
Utrecht Faculty of Veterinary Medi-
cine. When we go back we will pro-
bably be the only ones in Thailand with
a degree from Utrecht. In Thailand we
don\'t have a herd health department,
so we can learn a lot here. Knowledge
of epidemiology will be very useful, not
only for work in the large animal sec-
tor, but also to do research in compan-
ion animal medicine and surgery.quot;

Giovanna BulgareUi is a student from
Costa Rica, Central America. After
graduation at the Costa Rican School
of Veterinary Medicine she became a
staff member of the Clinic for Large
Animal Medicine. The Costa Rican
clinical educational system has been
modelled after the Utrecht system in
the course of a long-term cooperation
project that started in 1985. After fin-
ishing the master course Giovanna will
also return to her home country to
continue her work in the Clinic for
Large Animal Medicine.

Giovanna had a different start in
Utrecht: quot;I was asked by the Costa
Rican project manager to go to Utrecht
to do this course. At first he told me
that it would be merely a clinical train-
ing with only some epidemiological
aspects. That turned out to be some-
what differentquot;, she added dryly.

quot;Well, at first I wanted to go home as
quickly as possible. However, when I
got accustomed to the idea I began to
appreciate the course more. It is a
good course that broadens my know-
ledge of epidemiology. I really feel
more able now to help the Costa Rican
students and even the staff members to
improve the design of their field
studiesquot;.

Wanna and Witaya also expressed their
satisfaction with the course: quot;We hke it
very much, it is very well arranged with
a well trained staff.quot;

The Thai did not encounter unsolvable
problems: quot;Not really. When we came
here we had a basic knowledge of
epidemiology which was good enough.
We don\'t have problems v^th statistics
and mathematics. The only difficulty is
the language, we do speak English but
it\'s not easy.quot;

For Giovanna this seems to be the
contrary: quot;My English is fairly good and
I did not have many problems with
that. On the contrary, now I am partici-
pating for a month in the Clinic for
Large Animal Surgery and it some-
times appears that the Dutch have
more problems speaking English than I
have! However, I know that I was not
born to be a mathematical genius. The
mathematical part has not been easy
for me and I also did have a low level
in computer trainingquot;.

quot;We only have classes twice a week, we
made an arrangement with our neigh-
bour, she is so kind to look after our
baby. The other days we have to work
at home, that is not always easy
because the apartment is very small
and the baby sleeps in the same room
as we are studying. It was not really
planned to have a baby here in
Utrecht, but we can manage.quot;

Claw disorders are also
part of the MSc course in
veterinary epidemiology
and herd health (Photo:
Van Weeren)

with the group: quot;The atmosphere in the
group is good. There are no frictions
whatsoever. What I really miss here
from time to time is the willingness to
work together. In Costa Rica we used
to study with a whole group, here
people are working more individually.quot;
For Wanna and Witaya things are a bit
different as they are here as a couple.

Farm visits are part of this course. Are
there many differences between farms in
The Netherlands and your home coun-
try?

quot;In Costa Rica farms are differentquot;,
Giovanna says, quot;here you can manage a
farm with one person and a computer.
In Costa Rica there are always more
persons involved. However, I must
admit that people work harder here
and in a more systematical, more orga-
nized way.quot;

Wanna didn\'t join the farm visits
because she works with companion
animals. She will go to the small animal
clinic to observe how they work there.
Witaya hkes the farm visits very much.
quot;The difference between the farms in
Thailand and here varies with the size.
In Thailand the number of cattle per
farm ranges from only 5 or 10, to 100
or even 1000 animals. The bigger farms
are organized in more or less the same
way as in The Netherlandsquot;.

GioVfinna wearily shakes her head: quot;I,
and many foreign people with me, find
it difficult to estabUsh good relation-
ships with the Dutch. They are very
closed people. The best contacts I
made, were with other foreign students,
exchanged via the ERASMUS pro-
gramme; they were mainly from Italy
and Spain, but also from English
speaking countries such as Britain and
Irelandquot;.

The Thai couple does not have so
many contacts with students either:
quot;We only meet them when we visit a
farm, but that is very brief and the
students change all the time. We do
have contacts with Dutch people in our
flatquot;.

quot;In general the course is very good and
the staff is very flexible. It would be
nice to do more farm visits or go vwth
other veterinarians. We also would
have Uked to learn more about the
management of the farms. We lack
basic information, because many things
are different in Thailand. For example
feeding of cattle is different, and some-
thing like the influence of cold weather
and how to protect animals from the
cold, we don\'t know anything about
that, there is no cold weather in Thai-
landquot;.

Giovanna is rather satisfied too, al-
though she sees some bottlenecks in
the course: quot;The academic level of the
professors is excellent and their skills at
the educational level are very good too.
My main problem is to concentrate
myself during 6 or 8 hours of
epidemiological or statistical teaching
in one day. I see why they did it this
way, but for me it would be better to
have less hours on more days. Another
thing that has been improved a bit now
is that the professors were not available
on other days than the teaching days to
.answer questions. They were so busy
that you never could find them. This
has improved a bit as we have now one
hour a week for questions.quot;

The Masters Course on Veterinary
Epidemiology and Herd Health is a
success. Of course some minor things
remain to be improved, but in general
both teachers and students appear to
be very enthusiastic and highly moti-
vated. This MSc course is a significant
step forward in the internationalization
of the Utrecht Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine.

CONCLUSION FROM THE STVM-95
SYMPOSIUM:VEaOR-BORNE PATHOGENS
CHALLENGES FORTHE 21th CENTURY

The Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine organized its 1995 Symposium in
San Juan (Costa Rica) from 8-12 May, 1995. Recent fmdings concerning biotech-
nological research, as well as results from disease and vector control programmes
were presented to an international audience from North- and Latin America,
Africa and Europe. The papers which were presented during the symposium will
be pubhshed in the near future (Annals of New York Academy of Science).
EOUATOR can inform its readers now through a short summary composed by
Dr. E. Camus of CIRAD-IEVMT (Guadeloupe), scientific chairman of the
STVM-95.

Since the last Meeting in Guadeloupe two
years ago significant progress has been
made concerning heartwater.

and MAP2 sequence data, combined with
epitope mapping studies (Reddy et al.,
Mahan et al) may also define epitopes
usefiil for diagnosis.

Low levels of Cowdria ruminantium can
now be detected by PCR in ticks (Mahan
et al).

However, there is still a question concern-
ing the interrelationship between Cowdria
and Ehrlichia (AUsopp et al) which has
not only consequences for the serological
diagnosis but may be also for the clinical
symptoms.

The protection agamst cowdriosis by
vaccination with inactivated C. mminan-
tium, fu-st realized in goats in Guadeloupe,
has been confirmed in sheep (Mahan et
al) and in cattle (Totte et al), but the
mechanisms conferring protection are not
yet elucidated. The participation of specific
T-helper lymphocyte population seems
evident, even if in vitro studies are unable
to detect Cowdria antigen-specific T cell
responses in immune cattle (Kleef et al).

Analytical studies of in vitro culture of C
ruminantium could not only facilitate the
development of a specific optimal mediiun,
but could also lead to abetter understand-
ing of the mechanism of pathogenesis of
cowdriosis (Neitz et al).

After years of discussion and meetings the
tropical bont tick eradication campaign
eventually began in the Lesser Antilles.
The two French programmes of Guade-
loupe and Martinique officially began on
April 1,1994. Many problems, in particu-
lar financial, remain (Barré et al). For the
other islands, the FAO/nCA/CARICOM
programme based in Barbados is just
beginning. Let us hope for a rapid signifi-
cant progress for the whole programme.
Once agcdn, this eradication programme
can technically succeed, as shown by a
simulation model (Popham et al), but
financial and social difficulties still have
to be overcome. Another important point
will be to start the acaricidal tick control
at the Scune time on each of the island, in
order to avoid a dissemination of ticks
with cattle egrets (Corn et al) from
infested islands to islands where the tick
is under control.

The development of acaricide resistance
in Boophilus microplus in South America
(Thullner et al., Martins et al) and prob-
ably also in the Caribbean will affect the
Amblyomma variegatum eradication
campaign: it will be necessary to assess the
susceptibility of different strains of A.
variegatum but also of B. microplus.

Probably the most significant progress is
the successful in vitro cultivation of
Anaplasma marginale by E. Blouin et al.
This is really a breakthrough in anaplas-
mosis research.

A multiplexPCR assay can éamp;ttciBabesia
bovis, B. bigemina and A. marginale in
blood samples with excellent specificity
(100%) and good sensitivity (96.5%, 93.5%
and 93.8% respectively) (Figueroa et al).
A modified MPCR non-radioactive probe
assay can detect a very low parasiteamia
and with an other sissay Babesia DNA can
be detected in tick sîunples (Buening et
al). The MPCR has already been used in
an epidemiological survey in Mexico
(Alvarez et al).

B. bovis RAP.l is strongly immunogenic
for T helper (Th) cells from B. bovis
infected and immune cattle (Brown et al).
Moreover Th cell epitopes are similarly
shared among geographically different 5.
bovis isolates, but not with B. bigemina.

An apical complex-specific protein of B.
bovis is induced by oxidative and nutritional
stress. The stress proteins are believed to
be functioncdly important and are required
for the successful transition of a parasite
from one host to another (Rice-Ficht et
al). A role is suggested for activated
macrophages in the primary immune,
response against 5. bovis through reactive
oxygen, nitrogen intermediates and prod-
ucts from polyamine degradation (Johnson
et al).

New strategies to control anaplasmosis are
focused on the tick vector. Development
of vaccines against heamoparasites in ticks
may be feasible as vertebrate host immuno-
globulins enter the heamolymph of the
ticks. However, a first trial with vaccine
derived-antibodies did not appear to affect
the development and transmission of A.
marginale in ticks (Kocan et al). An
experimental vaccine, Plazvax, prevents the
development of severe anaemia and limits
the parasitaemia produced by experimental
injection of different sti-ains of^. mar^nale
or by experimentally tick-transmitted
anaplasmosis (Todd et al., Scholl et al).

An ISCOM based vaccine against der-
matophilosis can promote immunity to
Dermatophilus but the protective effect
remains insufficient to be of use in the
field (Sasiak and Lloyd). The identification
of a genetic BOLA marker for resistance
to dermatophilosis could lead to the
selection of resistant cattle (Maillard et
al.).

Ixodes scapularis adults and Amblyomma
americanum nymphs can be infected with
granulocytic ehrlichiae, a novel human
infection very closely related to two animal
pathogens {Ehrlichia equi andE.phagocy-
tophilica). The ticks may serve as natural
vectors of infections to humans and
animals (Nicholson et al).
Also a new Babesia spp. has been isolated
from humans in 1991 in Washington and
has later been observed in California
(Conrad et al).

An increased understanding of the role
of endothelial cells in the pathogenesis of
vector-borne diseases, such as theileriosis
and cowdriosis, may enable the control of
microbicidal nitric oxide (NO) production
or facilitate cytokine/anticytokine
approaches (Brown et al).

The screwworm eradication programme
in Central America is progressing (Galvin
amp; Wyss) by dispersion of sterile flies
produced in Mexico. Guatemala, Belize
and El Salvador are declared free. The
campaign is presently going on in Nica-
ragua and Honduras and will reach Costa
Rica next year and then Panama. A
benefit/cost study clearly demonstrates the
economic benefit to the livestock producer
in Central America and a positive effect
on the benefit-to-cost ratio (Wyss and
Galvin). It is very important to have a
successful example with a regional eradica-
tion programme and even if the difficulties
and the methods are different, it consti-
tutes an encouragement for the tick
eradication programme.

For the first time spontaneous oviposition
from wild Cochliomya hominivorax
occurred on an artificial medium com-
posed of sterile bovine blood, cow skin
and bacteria buffered at pH 7.6 at 40°C
(Poudevigne et al.); this \'artificial wound\'
proved to be attractive to gravid flies.
Myiasis in cattle due to Dermatobia
hominis does not appear as predisposing
factor to myiasis by Cochliomyia homini-
vorax.

An evaluation of the detection of Trypano-
soma vivax antigen by ELISA showed a
very low sensitivity of the test, far below
the parasitological detection (Desquesnes).

Erythropoietin and the presence of
inhibitors of erythropoiesis in peripheral
blood and bone marrow, play a role in the
anaemia development due to Trypanosoma
congolense infection in cattle (Logan et
al).

The title of the Symposium was: Vector-
Borne pathogens: challenge for the 21th
century. Let us hope that several chal-
lenges will be won by the end of this
century. That could be and should be the
case of the Bont Tick Eradication Pro-
gramme and of the Screwworm eradication
from Central America.
Other challenges will probably take more
time and are real challenges for the 21th
century, like the control by vaccination of
cowdriosis in Africa, the development of
an efficient recombinant vaccine against
babesiosis and anaplasmosis and the
control of trypanosomiasis in Africa.

FREE UNIVERSITY BERLIN / FA-
CULTY OF VETERINARY MEDI-
CINE ORGANIZES A DIPLOMA
COURSE ON TROPICAL VETERI-
NARY MEDICINE (11 months)

Over the last three decades the Insti-
tute of Parasitology and Tropical Ve-
terinary Medicine with its well known
quot;Tropenseminarquot; has been actively
involved in training and research re-
levant to the tropics. Based on these
experiences and as a continuation of
the quot;Tropenseminarquot; the new Diploma
Course focuses on etiology and infec-
tion epidemiology of livestock diseases,
on principles of epidemiology and their
apphcations; on epidemiological design
and analysis of field investigations; on
preventive veterinary medicine in dif-
ferent production systems; on veteri-
nary pubhc health and on planning,
management and economics of disease

control strategies. Upon successful
completion, the course will lead to a
Diploma in Animal Health Manage-
ment

The course is divided into two parts.
Part A (six months) consists of lec-
tures, course work and practical work
in Berlin and ends with oral examin-
ations. Part B (five months) consists of
three months field studies (project
work) which will be carried out at-
tached to ongoing programmes or pro-
jects in developing countries. Part B
ends with the completion of the Diplo-
ma thesis in Berlin (two months).

The next course will start on 1 March
1996 and finishes on 31 January 1997.

apply for admission. A doctorate (or
equivalent) in veterinary medicine and
at least two years of professional expe-
rience is required as well as proficiency
in Enghsh.

The course is conducted in English. A
good knowledge of spoken and written
English is a prerequisite and has to be
proven by a score of a standard test
before admission (TOEFL: minimum
540; ELTS-Test British Council: mini-
mum band 5). Applicants coming from
a country where English is an adminis-
trative language can be exempted from
having to prove language proficiency.

A limited number of scholarships for
German participants for this course is
available according the quot;NaFoG/-
NaFoVo/GFGquot; arrangement (DM
1.200 plus family allowances DM 200).
For participants who do not qualify for
the quot;NaFoGquot;, a course fee of DM
20,000 will apply.

The following is required for complete
apphcation: Personal data, motivation,
interest, expectations related to the
course, copies of qualifications (aca-
demic certificates), certificate of profi-
ciency in Enghsh and two recent pass-
port photographs.

Postgraduate Studies Tropical Veteri-
nary Medicine, Diploma Course, Free
University Berlin, Koenigsweg 67
D-14163 Berlin, Germany (tek: 49.30-
8108.2326, telefax: 49.30.8108.2323).

Prof. Mehlitz coordinates
the postgraduate training
in tropical veterinary
medicine at the Free
University Berlin (Photo:
De Gooijer)

The section RECENT PUBLICATIONS is included in the EngHsh issues of EQUATOR. Scientific publications of the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and other research institutes in The Netherlands, relevant to livestock production and health
in the tropics as well as titles of papers by Dutch veterinary scientist working on animal health and production topics in
relation to developing countries, be included. Please inform the editor of your publications so we can bring them to the
attention of the readers of EQUATOR. For reprints contact the authors directly, their addresses can be obtained from the
editorial office (Office for International Cooperation, P.O. Box 80.163, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands, telefax:
31.30.532116, E-mail: bic@bic.dgk.ruu.nl).

Anon. (1994). Veterinary parasitic control guide 94/95. Eds. A.S.PA.M. van Miert and R.A.J.M. van Meer. Alfasan
Nederland b.v., Woerden, pp. 92.

Otter, W. den. Hill, F.W.G., Klein, W.R., Koten, J.W., Steerenberg, P.A., Mulder, P.H.M. de, Rhode, C., Stewart, R., Faber,
J A. J., Ruitenberg, E.J. and Rutten, V.P.M.G. (1995). Therapy of bovine ocular squamous-cell carcinoma with local
doses of interleukin-2: 67% complete regression after 20 months of follow-up. Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy
41: 10-14 .

Bosman, H.G., Does, C. van der and Zwart, D. (1995). Training programmes for livestock specialists in developing countries.
An inventory of causes taught within the European Community. Agricultural University Wageningen and International
Agricultural Centre, Wageningen, pp. 90.

Graaf, T. de and Dwinger, R.H. (1995). Estimation of milk production losses due to subclinical mastitis in dairy cattle in
Costa Rica. In: Proceedings third IDF International Mastitis Seminar. Tel-Aviv, Israel, 28 May-1 June, 1995. Eds. A.
Saran and S. Soback, pp. 127-128.

Dube, N., Geelen, M.J.H. and Nyathi, C.B. (1994). Mycotoxins and their impact on food safety: a mini review. Zimbabwe
Veterinary Journal 25: 85-97.

Feresu, S.B., Bolin, CA., Korver, H. and Terpstra W.J. (1994). Classification of leptospires of the pyrogenes serogroup
isolated from cattle in Zimbabwe by cross-agglutinin absorption and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.
International Journal rf Systematic Bacteriology 44: 541-546.

Gueye, A., Jongejan, F., Mbengue, Mb., Diouf, A. and Uilenberg, G. (1994). Essai sur le terrain d\'un vaccin atténué contre la
cowdriose. Revue d\'Elevage jet ^ Médicine vétérinaire des Pays tropicaux 47: 401-404.

Hermans, P., Dwinger, R.H., Buening, G.M. and Herrero, M.V. (1994). Seasonal incidence and henioparasite infection rates
of Ixodid ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) detached from cattle in Costa Rica. Revista de Biologia Tropical 42: 623-632.

VUet, A.H.M. van (1995). Molecular characterization and detection of Cowdria ruminantium. PhD thesis. Utrecht University.
Utrecht, pp. 128.

Moloo, S.K., Grootenhuis, J.G., Jenni, L., Brun, R., Meirvenne, N. van and Murray, M. (1995). Trypanosoma brucei
rhodesiense: Variation in human serum resistance after transmission between bushbuck and domestic ruminants by
Giossina morsitans. Acta Tropica 59: 255-258.

This section contains vacancy announcements which the editorial board considers to be of possible interest to Dutch
veterinarians. Besides vacancies that will be taken from Vacatureblad Internationale Samenwerking, Tijdschrift voor
Diergeneeskunde, Veterinary Record, Intro vacatures (RDP Advies/ Ministry of Internal Affairs) etc., there will be room for
personnel advertisements. For further information one is requested to apply directly to the institution or company.

VETAID is a specialist charity organi-
zation working on livestock develop-
ment. The activities of VETAID are
expanding in Mozambique and there is
a position for a veterinarian/livestock
productionist to join a new and exciting
project. The veterinarian will work as
an advisor to the Livestock Service of
the Mozambique Government in the
Tete Province. The activities are part of
the Restocking and Animal Health
Care Programme which is funded by
the European Union.
The duration of the contract is 18
months from October, 1995.

Mature candidate, Portuguese speaking
and with a minimum of 5 years expe-
rience in tropical development

Candidates should apply with current
CV as soon as possible to Jeremy Da-
vies, VEDAID, CTVM, Easter Bush,
Roshn, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, Scot-
land (UK) (Tel. and telefax: 44.131.-
4453129).

L\'Institut Royal des Tropiques (KIT),
Amsterdam, cherche un candidat qui
remplira la fonction de:

Auprès de l\'Equipe Systèmes de Pro-
duction et de Gestion des Ressources
Naturelles (ESPGRN)

L\'Institut Royal des Tropiques (KIT), à
l\'effectif de 500 personnes, contribue
activement à la collaboration interna-
tionale. Ses activités s\'orientent aussi
bien vers les pays en voie de dévelop-
pement que vers le public néerlandais.
Les principaux terrains sur lesquels se
concentre une attention particulière
sont les suivants: développement rural,
santé pubhque sous les tropiques, en-
seignement, théâtre, activités sur le
plan des musées de même que d\'autres
formes de transfert de connaissances et
d\'information.

L\'Equipe Systèmes de Production et de
Gestion des Ressources Naturelles
(ESPGRN/Sikasso), appuyée par le
KIT, fait partie du Centre Régional de
Recherche Agronomique de Sikasso au
Mah-Sud, qui relève de l\'Institut d\'Eco-
nomie Rurale (1ER) de Mali.
L\'ESPGRN est une équipe pluridisci-
phnaire de recherche (en milieu pay-
san), composée d\'Agronomes, Aména-
gistes. Zootechniciens, Economistes et
Sociologues, MaUens et expatriés. Son
rôle principal est d\'identifier les con-
traintes techniques et socio-économi-
ques de production agricole et de Ges-
tion des Ressources Naturelles à tra-
vers une approche participative, faci-
litant la communication entre paysan-
(ne)s, vulgarisateurs et chercheurs. Le
but final est de développer des messa-
ges et approches méthodologiques par-
ticipatives, adaptés aux réalités paysan-
nes.

Un des axes de recherche de
l\'ESPGRN est l\'intensification des
systèmes d\'élevage et l\'intégration agri-
culture-élevage. Ceci comprend des
thèmes comme l\'utilisation rationnelle
de sous-produits agricoles, l\'améliora-
tion des techniques de stockage des
fourrages, le parcage et la stabulation
saisonnière, la gestion des troupeaux
bovins, l\'amélioration de l\'élevage des
caprins et la gestion des pâturages
naturels.

Perfectionner et adapter les techno-
logies dans les domaines de l\'intégra-
tion agriculture-élevage et de l\'inten-
sification d\'élevage.

Développer des techniques d\'aména-
gement et de gestion paysanne pour
améliorer l\'utilisation des pâturages
naturels communs: identifier et
quantifier les critères paysans pour
suivre la dynamique des Ressources
Naturelles.

Développer, en étroite collaboration
avec les organismes de vuLgarisation,
des approches pour vulgariser les mess-
ages et techniques déjà mis au point:
élaborer des outils adaptés aux condi-
tions paysannes.

Renforcer et élaborer davantage les
outils participatifs, l\'approche genre, et
la concertation avec les différents ac-
teurs du développement rural.

MSc. (ou équivalent) en zootechnie.
Bonne expérience en recherche appli-
quée et en recherche participative
(utilisation des outils participatifs, expé-
rience avec groupes paysans de recher-
che).

Etre capable de traduire des résultats
de recherche en messages de vulgarisa-
tion et en approches pratiques de vul-
garisation.

Savoir travailler en équipes pluridisci-
plinaires sensibilité pour les aspects
socio économiques d\'élevage.
Faculté de communication avec des
paysans, des vulgarisateurs et des cher-
cheurs.

Sept à dix ans d\'expérience profession-
nelle, dont de l\'expérience en Afrique
de l\'Quest.

Le niveau du salaire dépend de l\'âge et
de l\'experience et varie de Dfl. 5.123,-
à Dfl. 7.051,- brut par mois. L\'allo-
cation de vacances est de 8% et les
avantages non-salariaux sont excellents.

Adresser le dossier de candidature:
(lettre de candidature précisant les
motivations, curriculum vitae complet,
expérience) sous référence 51.08 avant
le 22 septembre à:

Institut Royal des Tropiques (KIT),
Dép. Personnel amp; Organisation, à
l\'attention de M.C. Yigit, Mauritskade
63, 1092 AD Amsterdam, Les Pays-Bas
(telefax: 31.20.5688205).

25 - 29 September, 1995.
8*^ International Conference of In-
stitutes of Tropical Veterinary Me-
dicine: Livestock production and
diseases in the tropics: Livestock
production and human welfare. Or-
ganized by: Association of Institu-
tions of tropical Veterinary Medi-
cine (AITVM). Programma: Plenary
sessions with papers of invited
speakers and six workshops intro-
duced by brief communications and
posters on: Peri-urban livestock
production; Epidemiology and so-
cio-economics in different livestock
systems; Impact of livestock on the
environment; Veterinary public
health in different livestock systems;
The role of women in animal hus-
bandry and Target oriented training
needs, demands and facilities in less
developed countries. For registra-
tion: Prof. Dr. D. Mehlitz, Institute
for Parasitology and Tropical Vet-
erinary Medicine, Free University of
Berlin, Koeningsweg, 14163 Berlin.
(Tel.: 49.30.81082326, telefax:
49.30.81082323)

6\'^ International symposium: Tropi-
cal Animal Health and Production.
Theme: \'Helminth diseases of rumi-
nants: diagnosis, epidemiology and
control\'. Organized by the Com-
mittee for the Advancement of

Tropical veterinary Science (CATS)
and the Office for International
Cooperation of the Faculty of Vete-
rinary Medicine of Utrecht Univer-
sity. Registration: Office for Inter-
national Cooperation, Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine. P.O. Box
80.163, 3508 TD Utrecht (Telefax:
31.30.531815, E-mail bic@bic.dgk-
.ruu.nl).

January, 1996 - December, 1997
4^^ Master of Science Training
Course in quot;Epidemiology and pre-
ventive veterinary medicinequot; for
veterinarians from developing coun-
tries. Organized by: veterinary fac-
ulties of the Free University of
Berlin and Addis Abeba University.
Programme includes one year of
course work, exams and research
participation in Berlin and one year
of appUed research, short trainmg
courses and workshops in Addis
Abeba. Subject: modern concepts in
population medicine for the impro-
vement of the health status of ani-
mal populations. Tuition fees: US$
equivalent of DM 29,000. Closing
date for registration: 30 September,
1995. Information and registration:
The Coordinator, Freie Universität
Berlin, Postgraduate Studies in
tropical Veterinary Medicine,
Auguststrasse 37, D-12203 Berlin.

15 January - 12 July, 1996
9\'^ International Course on Dairy
Husbandry and Milk Processing.
Programme: Dairy development,
Animal husbandry, Milkprocessing,
Dairy production, Teaching and
extension. Dairy farm management.
Small scale milk processing. Closing
date: 1 October 1995. Tuition fees
Dfl. 7,100,-. Information and apph-
cation: IPC Livestock, Dairy Trai-
ning Centre Friesland, P.O. Box 85,
9062 ZJ Oenkerk (Tel.: 31.5103-
.61562, telefax: 31.5103.61628).

26 February - 24 May, 1996
ISquot;quot; Animal Feed Training pro-
gramme (AFTP). Organized by:
IPC Livestock, Bameveld College.
Candidates may enter following
completing of one of the interna-
tional IPC animal husbandry
courses. Direct entry is also poss-
ible. Programme includes theoreti-
cal and practical subjects, trainee-
ships, workshops etc. Subjects: tech-
nical, nutritional, organizational and
economic aspects of animal feed
production. Fees including board
and lodging: Dfl. 12,000 or 14,500
(direct entry). Information: IPC
Livestock Bameveld College, Dep.
of International Studies and Coope-
ration Programmes, P.O. Box 64,
3770 AB Bameveld (Tel.: 31.3420-
.14881, telefax: 31.3420.92813).

1 March, 1996 - 31 January, 1997
\'Diploma Course on tropical vet-
erinary medicine\' for European
veterinarians leading to \'Diploma in
Animal Health Management\'. Pro-
gramme: Part A: 6 months of lec-
tures, course work and practicals in
Berlin and Part B: 5 months con-
sisting of 3 months field studies
carried out in projects in developing
countries and 2 months thesis work
in Berhn. Course fees DM 20,000.
Closing date for apphcation: 30
November, 1995. Information and
apphcation: Postgraduate Studies
Tropical Veterinary Medicine,
Diploma courses. Free University
Berhn, Koenigsweg 67, D-14163
Berlin (Tel.: 49.30.81082326, tele-
fax: 49.30.81082323).
See for more details in the collum
\'For your information\' elsewhere in
this EQUATOR.

19 - 22 March, 1996
First China International Annual
meeting on Agriculture Science and
Technology: \'Agro Annual Meeting
China 96\'. Including: Symposium,
exhibition trading. Organized by:
Chinese Association of Agricultural
Science Societies and Dep. of Ani-
mal Husbandry and Health, Minis-
try of Agriculture. Theme: Animal
industry and animal product pro-
cessing. Programme: Recent devel-
opment and prospects for the 21®\'
century in China and other coun-
tries in Ramp;D, laboratory and teach-
ing instruments and development of
technology, equipment and prod-
ucts. Symposium registration fee us$
350. Closing date: 20 December,
1995. Location: Beijing International
Convention Centre. Information and

registration: Mr. Zhao Weining,
Dep. of Animal Husbandry and
Health, Ministry of Agriculture,
Add: No. 11, Nong Zhanguan Nanli,
Beijing 100026 (Tel.: 86.10.-
4192850, telefax: 86.10.4192468).

EuroResidue III, Conference on
residues of veterinary drugs in food.
Organized by: Federation of Euro-
pean Chemical Societies (FECS)
and Netherlands Society for Nutri-
tion and food Technology. Subjects:
Antibiotics; hormones and beta-
agonists; LC/MS/MS applications;
residues in cultivated fish; toxic
effects of veterinary drugs; biosen-
sors; \'bound\' residues. Registration
fee: Dfl. 625,-. Location: Koningshof
Congress Centre. Information and
registration: Dr. N. Haagsma, Dep.
of Food of Animal Origin, Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box
80.175, 3508 TD Utrecht (Tel.:
31.30.535365, telefax: 31.30.-
532365).

26 August 1996 - 27 February, 1997
26*^ International course on poultry
husbandry and 26quot;quot; International
course on pig husbandry. Organized
by: IPC Livestock, Barneveld Col-
lege. These courses will run at the
same time. Following these courses
participation is possible in the 19quot;*
Anknal Feed Training programme
(AFTP), which runs from 3 March
to 25 May, 1997. Direct entry in this
last course is also possible. Fees in-
cluding board and lodging: Poultry
course: Dfl. 24,500; Pig course: Dfl.
24,500, Feed course; Dfl. 12,000 or
14,500 (direct entry). Closing date: 1
May, 1996. Information: IPC Live-
stock Barneveld College, Dep. of
International Studies and Coope-
ration Programmes, P.O. Box 64,
3770 AB Barneveld (Tel.: 31.3420-
.14881, telefax: 31.3420.92813).

\' 4\'*\' International Master Course
quot;Herd Health and Epidemiologyquot;.
Organized by: Department of Herd
Health and Reproduction of the Fa-
culty of Veterinary Medicine. Pro-
gramme: The Master Science course
offers an introduction to the appli-
cation of epidemiological methods
specifically apphed to the field of
population oriented studies in ani-
mals. Course fee: Dfl. 15,000,- (not
including lodging etc.). Closing date
for registration 1 July, 1996. Infor-
mation and registration: Office for
International Cooperation, Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box
80.163, 3508 TD Utrecht (Tel.: 31-
.30532116, telefax: 31.30.531815,
E-mail: bic@bic.dgk.ruu.nl).

International symposium: Tropi-
cal Animal Health and Production.
Theme \'Veterinary pubhc health
and zoonoses\'. Organized by the
Committee for the Advancement of
Tropical veterinary Science (CATS)
and the Office for International
Cooperation of the Faculty of Vete-
rinary Medicine of Utrecht Univer-
sity. Registration before 1 Septem-
ber, 1996 to Office for International
Cooperation, Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine. P.O. Box 80.163, 3508 TD
Utrecht (Telefax: 31.30.531815, E-
mail bic@bic.dgk.ruu.nl).

EQUATOR is a periodical of
the Office for International
Cooperation of the Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht
University.

EOUATOR is pubhshed bi-
monthly. The January, May and
September issues of EQUATOR
are published in Enghsh.

During the session on: \'General aspects
of control\' two speakers presented a
key note address: Dr. Jörgen Hansen
of the Food and Agriculture Organi-
zation (FAO) and Prof. S.N. Chiejina
of the University of Nigeria.
In his opening address entitled: \'Hel-
minth control in tropical countries:
need, strategies, benefits\', Dr. Hansen
stressed that: quot;Parasitologists know the
seriousness of the problems caused by
helminths, especially in the tropics, but
only limited documentation exists on
the impact these parasites cause in the
tropical zone. Unfortunately, there is
only Umited general acceptance and
recognition of the seriousness of this
situation. The problem should be
brought much more to the general
attention. Presently only very few live-
stock projects put money into animal
health and there is very little or no
input in parasite control. Major efforts
have been undertaken, and some are
still in progress, to control single infec-
tious diseases like foot-and-mouth
disease (FMD), rinderpest, tick borne
diseases and trypanosomiasis, in many
parts of Africa. Often these efforts do
not result in increased production. An
integrated health service is required
most urgently. In its collaborative pro-
gramme with the national governments
the FAO stresses the importance of the
inclusion of helminths control in a
health control package with integrated
strategies and actions. The costs for
anthelmintic treatments are relatively
low (0.10 -0.15 $c per treatment); most
expensive is the transport to get to the
animals. When you are there do as

On 6 October, 1995, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University
organized the 6^^ Symposium on \'Tropical Animal Health and Production\'. The
theme of this year\'s symposium was: \'Hehninth diseases of ruminants: diagnosis,
epidemiology and control\'. The programme was centred around 5 topics: (1)
General aspects of control, (2) Diagnosis and immunization, (3) Interactions
between helminth infections and the environment, (4) Genetic resistance against
hehninth infections and (5) Epidemiology, prevention and economic aspects.
Eleven speakers, two from the Utrecht Department of Parasitology and Tropical
Veterinary Medicine and nine from universities, research institutes or projects in
Africa or Europe were invited to give a presentation. At the end of the day the
organizers could look back on a successful day. With 75 participants coming from
eight European and five African countries the symposium on helminths was one of
the best attended symposia in the series on Tropical Animal Health and Produc-
tion organized in Utrecht since 1990.

much as you can! The benefits will
become even more visible if the health
control package is combined with im-
proved nutrition. By this approach
many problems can be solvedquot;.

Dr. Hansen further noted that: quot;Know-
ledge about parasites is in universities,
not so much in veterinary services. A
flow of information both ways is
needed. Linkage between helminth spe-
cies and age preferences need to be de-
fined, as well as specific local problems
e.g. like flukes in Vietnam and Nepal.
Much of the data collected in the past
is not good enough to design epide-
miological models for helminth dis-
eases. There is a great need for good
soUd data. The design of control strat-
egies has to be orientated to the local
situation and the education of the
people is most importantquot;.

Finally Dr. Hansen asked attention for
the problem of anthelmintic resistance.
quot;Field veterinarians and farmers know
the problem of internal and external
parasites. Therefor, the sales of
anthelmintic drugs by private veterinary
practices is coming up as a relative easy
way of earning money. But, as pharma-
ceutical companies and their represen-
tatives are, sometimes unnecessary,
pushing the sales of these drugs, the
risks for the development of resistance
to anthelmintic drugs are rapidly in-
creasing. Documentation on the real
benefits of anthelmintic treatment is
very scarce and often obtained from
experiments conducted under con-
trolled conditions. He noted that an
alarming situation has developed in
South America, where anthelmintic re-
sistance has developed on 92% of the
farms. It is very important to pay atten-
tion to resistance levels before a new
drug is introduced in a specific areaquot;.

In his presentation Prof. Chiejina des-
cribed the \'Current status and priorities
of research on the epidemiology and
control of helminth infections of rumi-
nants in West Africa\'. He started by
noting that quot;Accurate and up-to-date
estimates of the socio-economic impact
of enzootic helminth diseases of live-
stock in the 17 countries of West Africa
is lacking. But nevertheless there is
currently useful basic epidemiologic
data on the more important infectionsquot;.
Prof. Chiejina summarized this infor-
mation on parasitic gastro-enteritis,
fasciolosis and Taenia sa^nata cysticer-
cosis in his presentation and concluded
by indicating the areas requiring urgent
investigations (see the abstract of this
presentation in this EQUATOR).

During this session two papers were
presented by the Utrecht scientists Dr.
Maarten Eysker and Dr. Henk Schallig.
Dr. Eysker compared the various para-
meters that can be determined to esti-
mate the gastro-intestinal nematode in-
fection levels. He stated that: quot;Disease
can usually be diagnosed relatively easy
from signs in combination with the gra-
zing history. However, the estimation
of the impact of subclinical infections is

Dr. J.W. Hansen of FAO
(right), the key note
speaker of the symposium
discusses the need for
helminth control in
tropical countries {Photo:
De Gooijer)

far more important and unfortunately
by no means easyquot;. Several \'new\' tech-
niques have been developed which
measure parameters such as serum
pepsinogen values, serum gastrin values
and antibody and antigen titres as well
as DNA probes to identify parasite
DNA. The most promising of these
methods for wider apphcation seems to
be the ELISA for antibodies; although
it still needs better standardisation and
an upgrading of the species/genus-
specificity of the antigens used. Elabo-
rating further on the subject Dr. Schal-
lig highlighted that such ELISA can be
very useful in sero-epidemiological
studies in which large groups of ani-
mals must be examined. Most essential
is the identification of specific antigens
for the improvement of the diagnostic
test and for the development of immu-
nological control methods. Recently the
excretory/secretory (ES) products have
received increasing attention. Dr.
Schallig described studies that were
carried out on the ES products of Hea-
monchus contortus and indicated that
also H. placei, which is a of major
concern in tropical areas, was included
in these experiments. Biochemical
analysis has identified the proteins of
the ES products as proteolytic enzyme.
It was shown that infected animals
produce antibodies against these
enzymes. The potential of these en-
zymes as vaccine candidates is presently
being evaluated.

In the session on \'Interactions between
helminth infections and the environ-
ment\', Dr. Jacob Zinsstag started his
presentation by introducing the helmin-
thosis network in West Africa. quot;Since
1987, a research group funded by the
Swiss Development Cooperation is
building up a hehninthosis network at
the International Trypanotolerance
Centre in The Gambia and at several
institutions in the subregion. The ulti-
mate goal is to improve rursd income
through better livestock productivity
using parasite control. This objective
must be reached according to demand
and not to science; it must be rather a
mixture of both. A control scheme
should be a combination of manage-
ment improvements and the strategic

use of anthelminthics. Such a scheme
needs to be economically beneficial and
must meet farmers priorities for scarce
input allocation. As a consequence,
such a strategy must not be analyzed
using only parasitological and produc-
tivity parameters but also farming sys-
tem and economic criteriaquot;. Dr. Zinss-
tag presented an approach from epide-
miological baseline studies to large
scale control experiments, economic
analysis and acceptance studies con-
ducted under village conditions in The
Gambia.

Dr. R. L. Coop was invited to present
results of nutrition experiments in
sheep infected with helminths con-
ducted at the Moredun Research Insti-
tute in Edinburgh (UK). Dr. Coop des-
cribed two mechanisms of interaction:
quot;When intakes of infective larvae are
high and the plane of nutrition is sub-
optimal, mortahties frequently occur
but more insidious are the losses resul-
ting from poor reproductive perfor-
mance and reductions in meat, milk
and wood production, and reduced abi-
lity to combat concurrent disease.
These interactions can be considered
from two aspects. Firstly, the influence
of the parasite on the nutrition status
and metabolic processes of the host
and secondly, the influence of host
nutrition on the establishment and
survival of the parasite population and
the development of resistance to the
parasitic infectionquot;. Concerning the
metabolic process dr Coop noted that:
quot;The overall effect of infection in sheep
with gastrointestinal nematodes can be
summarised as diversion of amino acids
away from productive processes such as
meat, milk and wood production into
those processes which sustain the inte-
grity of the gastrointestinal tract and
maintenance of homeostatic mecha-
nisms which are essential for life. The
protein requirements of the parasitised
ruminant are consequently increased.
Remarkable is the observation that
sheep given a choice between feeds are
able to modify their diet selection in
order to overcome the adverse effects
of subclinical gastrointestinal parasi-
tismquot;.

Dr. M. Eysker: quot;The
estimation of the impact
of subclinical gastro-
intestinal nematode
infections is by no means
easyquot; (Photo: De Gooijer)

Citing from the literature Dr. Coop
highlighted some interesting observa-
tions made under field conditions in
the tropics. quot;Studies in south-east Asia
and the Pacific have clearly demon-
strated that supplementation of a low
quality roughage diet with urea can
enhance the ability of pen-fed sheep to
resist infection with gastrointestinal
nematodes. Also, grazing studies with
urea/molasses feed-blocks demonstra-
ted reductions in faecal egg output and
increased liveweight gain at weaning.
He concluded: quot;There is clearly con-
siderable potential for the development
of low-cost supplements which enable
enhanced production from locally avail-
able low quality roughage feeds. The
incorporation of such feed supplements
into grazing management and husban-
dry systems should reduce the depend-
ency on anthelmintics, thus lowering
the pressure for selection of resistant
strains of nematodes and conserving
the efficacy of the currently available
drug famihesquot;.

Genetic resistance to infections has
been given increasing attention over the
last decades, as a sustainable means to
increase productivity. Biotechnological
techniques have created the possibilities
to speed up the exploitation of certain
species and breed characteristics. Dr.
Mike Stear of Glasgow Veterinary
School presented the progress made in
recent years in the study of \'Sources of

variation in faecal egg output among
sheep infected with Ostertagia circum-
cincta\'. quot;One of the most remarkable
features of parasitic infections in gen-
eral, and Ostertagia circumcincta infec-
tion of sheep in particular, is the exten-
sive variation among hosts in resistance
to infection, as assessed by parasite
burdens and production of eggs or
infective larvae. A series of epide-
miological, genetic and immunological
studies have characterised the sources
of variation among sheep. Epidemio-
logically, the factors which influence
parasitic infections have been divided
into extrinsic factors, which differ
between flocks, and intrinsic factors,
which differ within flocks. Extrinsic
factors include climate, weather and
management, including nutrition, stock-
ing density and frequency and type of
anthelmintic treatment. The intrinsic
factors which account for the variation
among animals have been characte-
rised. They include dam, sire, sex, date
of birth and history of exposure to
infection. The influence of these vari-
ables depends upon the age of the
animal. There are no detectable genetic
effects in lambs less than three months
old. Genetic control of an acquired
response develops in two stages. Firstly,
control of fecundity, which is associated
with the development of a parasite
specific local IgA response and second-
ly, control of worm burden which is
associated with the production of glo-
bule leucocytes in the abomasal
mucosaquot;. Dr. Stear concluded that
genetic selection could be based on
determining the faecal egg output of
individual sheep during the 3-6 months
age period. It is hkely that 1 gene of
the MHC complex is responsible for
50% of the additive genetic variation in
egg counts.

Dr. R.L. Baker of the International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in
Nairobi, Kenya, presented in his paper
the natural resource of livestock breeds
in the tropics and the criteria of resis-
tance, resilience or tolerance and the
parameters to be measmed. quot;While
many of the publications on genetic
variation for resistance in disease can
be criticised in terms of experimental
design, it is reassuring to note that
some breeds have been identified as
resistant in a number of independent
studies. This applies particularly to the
Florida Native, St. Crobc and Red

Maasai sheep breeds, and it is very
Ukely these breeds have some real
resistance to internal parasites. It is
worthy of note that the St. Croix sheep
originated from West Africa and are
probably related to the Djallonke
sheep, which are beUeved to be rela-
tively resistant to endoparasites. Most
of the breeds identified as being rela-
tively resistant are native or \'unimpro-
ved\' breeds. This presumably reflects
the fact that these breeds have been
under natural selection for a long time
with little or no treatment with
anthelmintic.

In small ruminants most of the
heritabiUty estimates of resistance to
endoparasites, assessed in terms of
either faecal egg count (FEC) or
packed cell volume (FCV) percentage,
are from Merino or Romney sheep in
Australasia. The average heritabUity for
a single FEC measurement was 0.32,
while the average estimates for PCV
was 0.35, The heritabiUty of the mean
of several (2 to 3) egg counts recorded
in different infections increased to
about 0.5-0.6. In Africa, the few esti-
mates of heritabilities and repeatabi-
lities of resistance to endoparasites in
sheep and goats are similar to those
found in Australasia.
While there has been less research on
genetic resistance to gastro-intestinal
nematodes in cattle than in sheep,
there is evidence of genetic variabiUty
for resistance both between and within
cattle breeds. It has been clearly docu-
mented that under Australian condi-
tions the Bos indiens cattle (i.e. Brah-
man and Brahman crosses) are more
resistant to both gastrointestinal
nematodes and ticks (Boophilus micro-
plus) than Bos taums breeds (Hereford
and Shorthorn). In West Africa their is
also some Umited evidence that the
trypanotolerant N\'Dama cattle are
more resistant to endoparasites than
Zebu cattlequot;. Dr. Baker indicated that
ILRI is preparing plans to start a
research programme on genetic resis-
tance to helminth infections in sheep.

Dr. N. Maingi of the Faculty of Vet-
erinary Medicine of the University of
Nairobi presented results of a study
conducted on the use of anthelmintics
on 50 farms m the Nyandarua district.
A questionnaire survey indicated heavy
reUance on anthelmintics for the con-
trol of nematodes and liver flukes in
sheep. The most common practice was
to treat sheep at intervals of approxi-
mately 3 months. Similar observations
were made in a study carried out in
parts of the Rift Valley, Central Pro-
vince and Nairobi area to determine
the sale and usage of anthelmintics. Dr.
Maingi also reported on some interest-
ing studies which determined the effec-
tiveness of strategic anthelmintic treat-
ments in sheep.

Dr. P. Dorny, presently working at the
Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical
\' Medicine, in Antwerp, Belgium, pres-
ented to the audience a paper based on
his experiences in Malaysia. quot;The
humid tropical environment is very
favourable for year round development
of preparasitic stages on pasture. In
Malaysia, it was found that for H. con-
tortus development of eggs to infective
L3 larvae takes only 3 to 3.5 days on
open pasture and about 5 days on vege-
tation under rubber trees, irrespective
of the season. On the other hand sur-
vival of larvae on pasture is short, due
to exhaustion of stored energy. A large
proportion of the goats in the humid
tropics is probably never treated with
any anthelmintic during their lives
because anthelmintics are not
affordable for or available to all
farmers. However, parasite control can
increase small ruminant production in
the humid tropics dramatically. As a
result there is a growing awareness
amongst smaU farmers of the import-
ance of helminths as causes of produc-
tion losses and death. Unfortunately,
the year round development and sur-
vival of preparasitic stages of strongyles
and the current management make the
control a difficult task. Currently, con-
trol is solely based on suppressive
anthelmintic treatments. In some areas
the frequency of treatments is very
high, up to 15 treatments per year, but
generally three to four treatments per
year are practised. The frequent and
often irresponsible use of anthelmintics
in some areas has led to the develop-
ment of anthelmintic resistancequot;.

In the final presentation of the day Dr.
Jan de Bont of the Faculty of Veteri-
nary Medicine of the University of
Gent, Belgium, focused on schisto-
somiasis in cattle in Africa and Asia.
He paid attention to a large scale
epidemiological study carried out in

Zambia and to the significant progress
that has been made in the development
of an effective recombinant vaccine
against Schistosoma matteei. quot;The po-
tential of a recombinant Schistosoma
amp;ovw-derived glutathione S-transferase
(rSb28GST) to protect cattle against S.
mattheei infection was tested. The ob-
jective was to compare the results on a
single heavy experimental chaUenge
with those obtained in natural condi-
tions of repeated moderate chaUenge.
High specific antibody titres were
measured after the second inoculation.
Groups of vaccinated and control
calves were then challenged either
experimentaUy or naturally on a farm
infected with S. mattheei, and perfused
12 weeks and 9 months later, respect-
ively. AU vaccinated animals infected
experimentally developed clinical
schistosomiasis. The immunization
protocol used did not protect cattle
against the massive experimental chal-
lenge. However, natural infections were
much Ughter in intensity. At perfusion,
a significant reduction in the mean
miracidial count (-93%) and female
worm burden (-50%) were recorded in
the vaccinated group. Although egg
laying was found higher in vaccinated
animals, the mean tissue egg count in
vaccinated animals was reduced by
42% as compared to controls. It there-
fore appears that the recombinant
rSb28GST can provide significant pro-
tection against S. mattheei natural in-
fection in cattle by affecting worm
viabiUty. Postmortem examination of
animals from the field suggests that the
vaccine also affects the course of infec-
tions with Fasciola ^gantica.

In his closing remarks Dr. Hansen
compUmented the organizers of the
Utrecht Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
for the organization of a useful and
interesting symposium that wiU no
doubt stimulate the continuation of the
work on the control of helminth dis-
eases in the tropics. He highlighted
some of the promising developments in
the laboratory that were presented, as
well as the soUd data coUection which
is in progress under field conditions in
various countries.

(Readers of EQUATOR who are inte-
rested in the details of the presenta-
tions can obtain a copy of the \'Abstract
book\' on a written request to the edi-
torial office).

The bacterium Cowdria ruminantium be-
longs to the order Rickettsiales, a group
of bacteria quite different from most other
bacterial species. Most other bacteria can
divide independently, whereas C. mminan-
tium and its relatives can only divide inside
eukaryotic cells. This dependency on euka-
ryotic cells made it extremely difficult to
study the rickettsia. It took until 1985
before an in vitro cultivation system for
C. ruminantium became available, which
enabled subsequent studies on charac-
terization and detection of C. ruminan-
tium.

Cowdria ruminantium is the causative
agent of heartwater, an often fatal disease
of especially cattle, goats and sheep, and
is transmitted by ticks of the genus
Amblyomma. The disease got its name
from the exudates found in the pericardial
sac, a symptom quite commonly found at
post-mortem examination of animals
which succumbed to the disease. Heart-
water is found on the African continent,
south of the Sahara. Indigenous breeds of
ruminants are more or less resistant to the
disease, but the disease becomes promi-
nent when exotic breeds are introduced.
For a long time it was believed that the
disease was confined to the African conti-
nent, but in 1980 the disease was diag-
nosed in the Caribbean region. Most
probably the disease was imported here
in the 18th century when cattle infested
with infected ticks was transported from
Senegal to the Caribbean region. The
Amblyomma ticks have spread through the
Caribbean region and pose a serious
threat to livestock production in South and
North America. This has caused an up-
surge in the research on diagnosis of and
vaccination against C. ruminantium.

The clinical diagnosis of heartwater is very
difficult, as the signs are not specific (e.g.
fever, nervous symptoms). Rickettsia can
not be diagnosed by normal bacteriological
methods, and it is even difficult to find
them in post-mortem samples. The first
generation of tests developed for the diag-
nosis of heartwater was based on the de-
tection of C. mm/ncnr/um-specific anti-
bodies in serum samples. However, there
were doubts about the specificity of these
tests. A new type of test, developed for
the diagnosis of other infectious diseases,
uses the Polymerase Chain Reaction
(PCR). This test shows the presence or
absence of DNA of the infectious agent.
At the start of the research presented in
the thesis, these tests were not yet deve-
loped for the detection of C. mminantium.
These problems with diagnosis of C. mmi-
nantium infection are responsible for the
absence of knowledge on the exact distri-
bution of C. mminantium in both Africa
and the Caribbean region. This makes the
development of poUcies for prevention of
the spread of C. mminantium difficult.

On 28 September, 1995, Dr. Arnoud van Vliet defended his PhD thesis, entitled
\'Molecular characterization and detection of Cowdria ruminantium\' at Utrecht University.
Dr. Van Vliet studied Medical Biology in Utrecht and started in April 1991 with his
PhD research at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology of the Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht. His research was supported by a grant of the STD-3
programme of the Commission of the European Union. A brief summary of this inte-
resting work, which has already received international attention (see EQUATOR vol.
7, no. 4/5) is given below.

The development of an in vitro culture
system for C. mminantium has enabled
further studies on the antigenic and mo-
lecular structure of the rickettsia. Recom-
binant DNA techniques were used to
gather knowledge on the rickettsia. With
this knowledge improved diagnostic tests
were developed and possibilities were
created for the development of a vaccine.

In order to be able to test the specificity
of diagnostic tests it is necessary to know
which bacteria are related to C. mminan-
tium. The phylogenetic position of C. m-
minantium was determined. C. mminan-
tium is very closely related to other
rickettsial species, vaoamp;ily Ehdichia species,
but also to Anaplasma species. The close
relation with E/irZ/c/z/ö species was partial-

ly expected on basis of morphological and
antigenic resemblances, but the relation-
ship with Anaplasma species was surpri-
sing. Although closely related they infect
different cells. The only resemblance
between these bacteria seems to be that
they are transmitted by ticks or other
arthropods. This probably means that all
these different bacteria have developed
out of an ancestor which was found in the
arthropod ancestors of ticks.

One of the proteins of C. ruminantium is
predominantly recognized by antibodies
in sera of animals with heartwater. This
protein was designated Major Antigenic
Protein (MAP) 1. Several diagnostic tests,
based on the recognition of this protein,
were developed and tested for their speci-
ficity, using antisera to Ehrlichia species
which are closely related to C. ruminan-
tium. It was shown that all tests were not
specific for C. ruminantium. It was con-
cluded that these tests are not reUable for
use in areas where C. ruminantium and
Ehrlichia species can both occur.

The gene encoding the MAPI protein of
C. ruminantium was isolated and cloned.
The gene was further characterized by
determination of its DNA sequence. Sub-
sequently the gene was used for the pro-
duction of MAPI protein by the bacterium
Escherichia coli, enabling the production
of cheap antigen for serological tests and
inclusion in recombinant vaccines.

Development of a Cowdria ruminantium-
specific serological assay
It was demonstrated that the MAPI pro-
tein is not unique for C. ruminantium. The
possibility that the protein contained parts
that were specific for C. ruminantium, was
tested. Overlapping parts of the protein
were produced and tested for their speci-
ficity using antibodies to C. ruminantium
and Ehrlichia species. The conclusions of
these experiments were that the MAPI
protein contains two regions: one respon-
sible for the cross-reaction with antibodies
to Ehrlichia species (designated MAPl-A)
and one specific for C. ruminantium (de-
signated MAPl-B). A serological assay
utilising MAPl-B was developed and
tested using sera from Zimbabwe and the
Caribbean islands. A much better specifi-
city compared to previous tests was de-
monstrated. This test is currently further
evaluated in the Caribbean region and in
Zimbabwe.

As antibodies to C. mminantium could be
detected only during a relatively short
period (up to 250 days after infection),
doubts remained about the specificity.
Also because the test was unable to de-
monstrate carrier animals. Therefor a
PCR assay for the detection of C. rumi-
nantium was developed using the MAPI
gene sequence. The PCR assay is a tech-
nique capable of amplifying short stretches
of DNA of specific organisms and theo-
retically supersedes the serological assays
in sensitivity and specificity.
Wildlife species have been suspected as
reservoir hosts for C. ruminantium, but
this was rarely confirmed. Using the PCR
we were able to amplify C ruminantium
DNA from blood and bone marrow
samples of experimentally infected domes-
tic ruminants, as well as from several wild
ruminant species. This wildlife reservoir
has to be taken into account when control
policies for the disease are being formu-
lated.

It was concluded that the use of recombi-
nant DNA techniques in heartwater
research has opened a wide range of
possibiUties for development of vaccines
and improved assays for the detection of
C. ruminantium in infected ruminants and
ticks.

(For more information: A. van Vliet PhD,
University of Leicester, Department of
Genetics, University Road, Leicester LEI
7RH, England, Telefax: 44.116.2523378,
e-mail: aw2@leicester.ac.uk).

This section contains vacancy announcements which the editorial board considers
to be of possible interest to Dutch veterinarians. Besides vacancies that will be
taken from quot;Vacatureblad Internationale Samenwerkingquot;, quot;Tijdschrift voor Dier-
geneeskundequot;, quot;Veterinary Recordquot; and quot;INTRO vacaturesquot;, there will be room for
personnel advertisements. For further information one is requested to apply
directly to the institution or company.

Chief, Animal Production Service and
the general supervision of the Senior
Officer (Animal Genetic Resources),
assist with the planning and execution
of the surveying and monitoring
elements of FAO\'s global Early War-
ning System for Animal Genetic
Resources within the Programme for
the Management of Farm Animal Ge-
netic Resources. Specifically, to: assist
in developing strategies for monitoring
diversity with particular emphasis on
developing country genetic resources;
maintain the associated databases on
FAO\'s Domestic Animal Diversity
information System; maintain the
World Watch List for Domestic Animal
Diversity; collect and evaluate docu-
ments on scientific and technological
developments in surveying livestock
populations; adapt and transfer appro-
priate technology to developing coun-
tries; assist countries in their pro-
grammes for better documenting and
monitoring, particularly of indigenous
genetic resources; prepare related tech-
nical publications; participate in the
design and implementation of the Glo-
bal programme; develop and maintain

contacts with the range of institutions
and organizations involved in the Pro-
gramme, particularly the Programme\'s
National Focal Points, and keep
abreast with scientific and technological
developments in conservation genetics;
perform other related duties quot;quot;
required.

University degree in Agriculture, Vete-
rinary Science, or other related scien-
tific field, with postgraduate speciali-
zation in the Animal Sciences. Five
years of progressively responsible pro-
fessional experience in animal produc-
tion and breeding; knowledge of breed-
ing of most farm animal species;
knowledge of and experience with
design, implementation and analysis of
large-scale field surveys. Broad comput-
ing experience.

Initiative and high sense of responsibi-
hty; abihty to work under pressure and
in a team. Abihty to communicate
effectively both orally and in writing.
Ability to estabhsh and maintain effec-
tive working relationships with people
of different national and cultural back-
grounds. Initiative, abihty to collate,
analyze and evaluate technical and
scientific information. Willingness to
use word processing equipment. Work-
ing knowledge (level C) of Enghsh,
French of Spanish and hmited know-
ledge (level B) of one of the other two.

Animal Production Service, Animal
Production and Health Division, Agri-
culture Department.

Applications from qualified women
candidates are encouraged. Please note
that FAO staff members are interna-
tional civil servants subject to the au-
thority of the Director-General and
may be assigned to any activities or
offices of the Organization.

FAO Personnel Division, Via deUe
Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.
Tel. 39.6.57971; Fax. 39.6.6799563.

8th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF
NSTITUTIONS OF TROPICAL VETERINARY
MEDICINE EMPHASIZED AGAIN THE
IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABILITY

From 25 - 29 September, 1995 the 8th International Conference of Institutions of
Tropical Veterinary Medicine took place in Berlin, Germany. Over 330 partici-
pants (of which 20% were students) from 64 different countries found their way to
Berlin to share their experiences in working and doing research in tropical
countries. Many scientists from outside Europe were enabled to come to Berlin to
present a poster or give a presentation through a fellowship provided by the
Deutsche Stiftung fuer Entwicklung (DSE) or the Commission of the European
Union (EU). Four days of hard work, listening to lectures or participating in
workshops were kept in balance by a social programme consisting of sight-seeing
tours around Berhn and a trip to a former state farm, a conference dinner and of
course by the reunion of old and new friends.

After the opening session the congress
programme continued with plenary
papers on varying subjects. The first
speaker was K. Peters of the Humboldt
University in Berlin. His presentation

products. Technologies should fit in the
stage of development of the livestock
systems. Because not all livestock sys-
tems have the objective of profit
maximisation, specific socio-cultural
issues may be of importance and add
to system complexity. Better methods
for decision making and improved
linkages with the production sector are
thus required to assist the livestock
sector meeting its challenges to pro-
duce food.

U. Werblow of the Directorate-General
for Development of the EU mentioned
the big agricultural research challenges
the world is facing. With a world popu-
lation that will exceed 8 bilhon in the

year 2025, the world food supphes will
have to more than double in the
coming 30 years. To achieve this, and
in the same time to halt the deteriora-
tion of the environment and to dimin-
ish the enormous differentials between
the rich and the poor, a close collabo-
ration between North and South is
needed.

F.X. Meslin of the division of com-
municable diaseases of the World
Health Organisation gave a lecture on
zoonoses, global changes and the
impact on public veterinary medicine.
The close relationship between veteri-
narians and animals, their environment
and human beings makes the pro-
fession vulnerable to major changes
occurring in any of these three cate-
gories. A number of these changes are
already under way, like changes in
population size and stucture, urbani-
sation and environmental and climatic
changes. Increased prevalence of zoo-
noses is due to changing lifestyle, in-
creased travelling of both humans and
animals, deterioration of public health
activities, changes in handling of food
and the continuous evaluation of patho-
genic organisms and antibiotic resis-
tance. The consequences of these glo-
bal changes have to be evaluated and
this should lead to identification of
priorities for future interventions in the
fields of zoonoses prevention, control
and surveillance, food-borne intoxica-
tions and infections, and the future
contribution of the veterinary pro-
fession.

C. de Haan of the Worldbank empha-
sized that livestock production should
sustain the quality of the global land,
water, air, plant and animal resources.
The Worldbank paper on the balance
between livestock and the environment
seeks to assess objectively the positive
and negative effects of livestock on the
environment and identify the key po-
Hcies and technologies which mitigate
the negative and enhance the positive
effects. De Haan stressed that veteri-
nary and agricultural groups should
really invest their energy in investiga-
ting these matters, because otherwise
other groups, that will only emphasize
the negative effects of livestock produc-
tion, will take over.

A. Waters-Bayer of ETC Netherlands,
spoke about small-scale livestock
keeping in cities. Although livestock
keeping in cities can give rise to a
number of problems like noise,odours,
road accidents and diseases, it provides
numerous opportunities for families in
all income groups: better nutrition,
income security and employment, not
only for the animal keepers but also for
people operating in informal supply
systems. Instead of simply forbidding
livestock keeping in urban areas or
denying the existence of it, it would be
better if authorities found ways to bet-
ter organize these activities, minimizing
the dangers involved and maximizing
the opportunities. The challenge for
veterinarians confronted with livestock
in cities is to interact positively with
urban authorities to ensure that they
receive correct and locally appUcable
information and appropriate low-cost
inputs, rather than making vain
attempts to ban livestock from the
cities..

M.S. Dicko, an independent consultant
from Mali, gave a lecture on the active
participation of women in the develop-
ment of hvestock keeping in sub-
saharan Africa. Depending on their
cultural background women dedicate
time to the animals and the herd. They
are responsible for feeding the animals,
milking, treating diseased animals, and
processing and commercializing animal

Prof. M. Obwolo is the
new chairman of the
standing committee of the
AITVM (Photo: De
Gooijer)

products. Despite their keyrole in live-
stock keeping, the role of women in
development projects is still limited.
The decision of policymakers to help
women reahse the important role they
play in the development of livestock
keeping will in short and in long term
be more revolutionary than the fight
for their rights in itself.

The last speaker of the first day, W.N.
Masiga of the Organisation of African
Unity (OAU) in Kenya, defined train-
ing needs in less developed countries.
The limited resources that exist in the
less developed countries should be fully
utilized. Veterinarians, who received an
expensive education, should be fully
employed in the animal health and
production field. Routine duties can be
carried out by technicians. Training for
a professional career, be it graduate,
undergraduate or post graduate, should
be target oriented. This means oriented
towards the specific needs of the
people and towards the specific pro-
blems of the region.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the par-
ticipants of the congress were divided
in three groups, each group elaborating
a different workshop subject. It was not
easy for the chairpersons and the mo-
derators to conduct discussions with
groups of so many people. But on
Friday, after a day of hard work, while
in the mean time the congress partici-
pants were enjoying the excursion to
Berlin, they presented a long list of
conclusions and recommendations.

The first goal of the workshop on
quot;Peri-urban livestock production and
developmentquot; had been to clarify the
concept of \'peri-iu-ban livestock produc-
tion\'. It was impossible to provide a
clear-cut definition, but the following
characteristics of this type of livestock
production were defined:

-nbsp;relative close to population centres
which create demand for the live-
stock products;

- to some extent also managed by poor
households who are seeking addi-
tional means of income for survival.
Recommendations were made on both
the poUcy and resecuch level. Policies
on peri-urban livestock production have
to be part of the overall agricultural
policy, and governments should ade-
quately invest in infrastructure to
reduce unit production costs and to
provide incentives to those involved in
the production process. Governments
have to recognize the importance of
peri-urban livestock production in their
development pohcies.
Research should be conducted in the
field of zoonoses, especially in non-
conventional animals, and on the im-
pact of peri-urban livestock production
on the environment and public health.
Furthermore the economic and nutri-
tional impact of the system has to be
investigated.

The second workshop was on quot;Disease
epidemiology and socio-economics in
different live-stock systemsquot;. Here, it
was concluded that the available dis-
ease control and prevention methods
are fairly good, but that their effective-
ness and efficiency could be improved.
Farmers\' participation should be fur-
ther encouraged. Disease reporting and
surveillance are important in disease
control, improved data collection and
analysis are needed.

The migratory aspect of nomadic live-
stock production systems is a constraint
to the delivery of veterinary services.
Health services should therefore be
adjusted to the needs of the nomads. If
land security was given to the nomads
they would be able to properly utilize
this land and protect it from degrada-
tion.

Zoonoses are a serious problem in
different livestock systems, especially
among nomadic communities, control
measures are to be improved and there
should be a better cooperation between
veterinarians and human health pro-
fessionals in epidemiological studies,
diagnosis and control.

The third workshop, on quot;The impact of
livestock on the environmentquot;,
expressed the growing concern for
environmental issues related to live-
stock production and sustainable man-
agement of resources. The general
agreement was that there is too much
emphasis on the negative aspects of the
relation between livestock and environ-
ment. It was recommended that natio-
nal governments, donors and develop-
ment agencies ensure active participa-
tion of all relevant groups during the
whole process of assessing environ-
mental impact, as well as in planning,
implementing and evaluating livestock
development activities. Special promo-
tional activities are needed in order to
enable women and marginal groups to
join this participatory process. Research
and educational institutions will have to
increase attention to environmental
issues related to livestock production.

Livestock services delivery systems
The fourth workshop discussed how to
quot;Increase the efficiency of livestock
services delivery systemsquot;. Many recom-
mendations were formulated, defining
the tasks of the local governments and
the tasks of the veterinary services.
Where possible a gradual privatisation
of delivery services should be faciU-
tated. To be able to pay for these
privatised services, the smallholders
must create new sources of income.
Paraveterinarians play a key role in
supplying veterinary services to the
farmers. However, they should operate
under the supervision of a hcensed
veterinarian and they should be
regarded as complementory rather than
as competitive to the veterinarian.

The fifth workshop identified quot;The role
of women in animal husbandryquot;, and
the constraints on women in Uvestock
production. Recommendations to rural
women were to make use of their
knowledge of traditional livestock
keeping; to organize themselves in
cooperatives and self-help groups, to
stimulate gender awareness through
formal and informal education, to use
an integrated approach to improve
man-woman communication, to orga-
nise trainings and to develop neigh-
bourhood markets. Female professio-
nals should work directly with rural
women, to introduce relevant techno-
logy and to improve communication.
Women should participate in research
and planning. National governments
are advized to integrate gender issues
into Uvestock poUcies and to adopt a
hoHstic approach.

The participants in the last workshop
discussed quot;Training needs, demands
and facihties in less developed coun-
triesquot;. Attention was focused on the
profile of veterinary education, devel-
opment of research activities and
regional collaboration between national
institutes.

Industrialized countries should assist
less developed countries in the develop-
ment of training and research. It is
necessary to assess the needs for train-
ing executives in Uvestock production in
a qualitative (appropriate profile for
the different job possibilities) and a
quantitative way. For this purpose the
AITVM should form a group of specia-
Usts that wiU elaborate a methodology
for determining the professional pro-
files and the demands of the users.

Message from the Standing Committee of the AITVM

Tlie Standing Committee of the Association of Institutes of Tropical Veterinary Medidne
(AITVM) is composed of 10 members who are based at veterinary faculties or institutes
in Europe, Africa and Asia and one associated member from Ivory Coast. During the
AITVM Conference in Berlin the Standing Committee met on 2 occasions. During
the first meeting Prof. Dr. Dieter Mehlitz of the Institute for Parasitology and Tropical
Veterinary Medicine of the Free University of Berlin, who is the Secretary of the
Standing Committee and the organizer of the Berlin conference, reported on the state
of affairs of the preparations for the Conference. During the second meeting, which
was held just before the closing of Conference Prof. Dr. Dik Zwart of the Agricultural
University of Wageningen laid down his membership as he had retired some months
earlier. Because of his major contributions to the Association and as the last founding
member of AITVM still active in the Standing Committee, he was made \'Honorary
member of the Standing Committee of AITVM\'. His successor on the Committee will
be Dr. Robert Paling of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University.
Furthermore, the chairmanship of the Standing Committee, which was in the hands
of Prof. Dr. Stanny Geerts of the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp, was handed
over to Prof. Mark Obwolo, dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University
of Zimbabwe. Prof. Geerts became the vice chairman. In his first speech as chairman
of the Standing Committee Prof. Obwolo announced to the Conference that he will
investigate the possibility to host the next AITVM conference in Harare.

results and the closing ceremony on
Friday, it was time to go home. The
meeting in Berlin completely achieved
its goal, namely to be a platform for
scientists to pass on knowledge. With
337 participants, attending 7 plenary
sessions, 94 short communications and
73 posters, this congress can be seen
as a unique event were people from
different discipUnes share their know-
ledge, experiences and results in animal
production and tropical veterinary
medicine. Above all this, the congress
provided the opportunity to meet
friends from many different countries.

THE CURRENT STATUS AND
PRIORITIES OF RESEARCH ON THE
EPIDEMIOLOGY AND CONTROL OF
HELMINTH INFEQIONSOF
RUMINANTS IN WEST AFRICA^

Parasitic gastroenteritis

Naturally-occurring PGE is a gastro-
enteropathy caused by mixed infections
with several species of gastro-intestinal
(GI) nematodes. Under traditional
pastoral and sedentary village hus-
bandry, which are the dominant sys-
tems of production in the region, it
generally manifests as a chronic or
subclinical syndrome. However, clinical
disease is rather common in intensive
systems of production, or when tradi-
tionally managed animals are inadver-
tently exposed to heavy infections,
either during prolonged indoor confine-

Helminth infections and their associated diseases are among the most prevalent
and widely distributed of all the enzootic parasitoses of tropical livestock. Infec-
tions in ruminants are characteristically chronic and insidious in nature and in
West Africa, in particular, have attracted very little attention, including research
funds, when compared with viral, bacterial and some protozoal diseases. This is in
spite of the fact that they undoubtedly exert a heavy toll on the health and produc-
tivity of this vitally important livestock resource, with obvious impUcations for the
rural and national economies of the region. Accurate and up-to-date estimates of
its socio-economic impact are lacking in all the 17 countries of the region but
economic losses are beUeved to arise through poor growth rate and feed conver-
sion, reduced meat and milk yield, carcass and offal condemnation, impaired
reproductive efficiency and, in some localities, loss of draught power. Nevertheless
there is currently useful basic epidemiological data on the more important infec-
tions which, if properly evaluated and applied, could form a basis for the planning
of appropriate control schemes in most of the geo-climatic zones of the region.
This information is summarised in this presentation, which also identifies some
areas of epidemiological research requiring priority attention, with particular
reference to the three most prevalent and economically important helminth infec-
tions of domesticated ruminants in the region namely, parasitic gastro-enteritis
(PGE), fasciolosis, and Taenia saginata cysticercosis.

ment in unhygienic conditions or fol-
lowing restricted/zero-grazing of hea-
vily contaminated pasture/fodder. Hae-
monchus and Cooperia species (in
cattle), H. contortus and Trichostron-
gylus colubrifomiis (in small ruminants)
are the most important causative
nematodes in most field outbreaks.
The transmission, incidence and inten-
sity of infections are determined by
several environmental, host- and parasi-
te-dependent influences and pheno-
mena, the most dominant of which are:
meteorological factors; methods of
husbandry and systems of livestock

Paper presented at the 6 symposium on \'Tropical Animal Health and Production. Hel-
minth diseases of ruminants: diagnosis, epidemiology and control\', Utrecht, 6 October,
1995, Programme and abstracts, pp. 8-14.

production; host age, nutrition and
acquired immunity; larval hypobiosis
and concurrent infections. Thus, in the
Sahel and dry savannah zones, which
are the major livestock-raising areas of
the region, TGE is essentially a rainy
season phenomenon since transmission
of infection ocv^urs only during the
relatively short rans. Consequently, the
most important stra\'^egy for the survival
of parasites from one rainy season to
another is by means of larval hypo-
biosis and most species are able to
complete only one or two generations a
year. By contrast, in the humid zone
year-round development and transmis-
sion of infection readily occur, with up
to four parasite generations a year and
virtually no arrested development takes
place.

Similarly, the variety of modern and
traditional methods of husbandry prac-
tised in the region present contrasting
opportunities for contact between host
and parasite, with corresponding dif-
ferences in the frequency and duration
of such contacts. These differences
largely account for the considerably
greater risk of infections under the
former methods of husbandry and
production. Moreover, intensification
under this method of husbandry is

rarely backed up by appropriate worm
control measures. Malnutrition, host
immumty and concurrent infections
exert powerful modulatory influences
on the pathogenicity and chronicity of
the concomitant nematode infection.
Host age is also very important, par-
ticularly vwth regard to Toxocara vitulo-
rum and Strongyloides papillosus infec-
tion.

Hardly any kind of formal PGE control
is practised in most traditional systems
of production. This is due to several
factors notably: (1) the insidious nature
of infections and the lack of awareness
by livestock owners of the dangers
posed by worm infections; (2) the rela-
tively high cost and scarcity of modern
anthelmintics and; (3) the inaccessibi-
hty of many village, nomadic and
transhumant stock to modern veteri-
nary care, where one exists.
Some organised routine worm control
is, however, practised in large intensive
enterprises. Here, anthehnintic treat-
ment is the favourite and often the only
control measure. Grazing management
and integrated control strategies which
require considerably more experience,
skill and detailed epidemiological
knowledge to implement, are generally
impracticable in most situations.

Although several anthehnintic treat-
ment programmes have been recom-
mended or tried under field conditions,
none has been subjected to detailed
and extensive field evaluation and vah-
dation. Consequently, there are no
ready-made or made-to-measure pro-
grammes that can be recommended for

Prof. S.N. Chiejina advo-
cated co-operation and
teamwork as basis for
future multidisciplinary
studies (Photo: De
Gooijer)

any given locality in the region. Pro-
bably the commonest use of anthelmin-
tics in the area is for the control of
on-going outbreaks. Strategic dosing to
take advantage of the natural and pre-
dictable seasonal sterilising effect of the
long dry season on pastures m the
sahel and parts of the savannah zones
does not appear to have been fully
exploited. Fortunately, and perhaps
surprisingly, anthelmintic resistance
does not seem to constitute a problem
in any part of the region, in spite of the
lack of professional guidance and su-
pervision in their use, coupled with the
ineffective and, in some cases, non-exis-
tent official control of the hcensing and
sale of these drugs.

Fasciolosis, which sometimes occurs
concurrently with other trematodoses
such as dicrocoelosis, paramphistomosis
and schistosomosis, is probably the
most important single helminth infec-
tion of ruminants in the sahel and sava-
nnah zones. The only known natural
intermediate host of the causative
trematode, Fasciola gigantica, is the
aquatic snail, Lymnaea natalensis,
which can only develop and thrive in
large, slow-flowing, clear, permanent
bodies of water with abundant vegeta-
tion and oxygen. Consequently, fascio-
losis is virtually unknown, as a veteri-
nary problem, in the arid zones of
West Africa. By contrast, ideal habitats
abound in the main livestock raising
areas, in the vicinity of permanent
pools, lakes, streams, irrigated land,
waterholes and flood plains, which are
often the only sources of food and drin-
king water for pastoral nomadic and
transhumant stock during the dry sea-
son.

As with PGE, the epidemiology of fas-
ciolosis in the region follows clearly
defined patterns which are determined
primarily by seasonal climatic factors,
the availability of suitable snail habitats,
the biology of Fasciola and its snail
vector, methods of animal husbandry,
host age, nutrition and response to
infection. The prevalences of infection
and clinical disease are also higher in
intensively managed stock and seden-
tary traditional stock than in true
nomadic herds and flocks. However, by
contrast with PGE, fasciolosis is usually
a dry season disease in the sahel and
savannah zones and only hght infec-
tions occur during the rainy season.
The increase in fluke burdens at the
start of the dry season coincides with
the annual migration of nomadic and
transhumant stock to, and overcrow-
ding of, the few available and restricted
grazing areas, which quickly become
heavily contaminated with fluke eggs at
a time when there is a corresponding
increase in snail populations and her-
bage meta-cercarial density. Herbage
infestation remains high throughout
most of the dry season, giving rise to
acute disease, particularly in small
ruminants, during early to mid dry
season. However, field observations
have shown that this general pattern
may be altered in times of prolonged
drought, concurrent infections, malnu-
trition and other stressful conditions.

Control of fasciolosis is beset with the
same problems and constraints men-
tioned in connection with the control of
PGE. This is further complicated by
the peculiar problems posed by the
extensive, often distant, inaccessible
and ill-defined snail habitats as well as
by the enormous financial and technical
problems which molluscicidal treatment
of such habitats would entail. Not sur-
prisingly, most recommended and at-
tempted routine and strategic control
give priority to anthelmintic treatments.
However, the feasibility, let alone the
practical benefits, of any of these re-
commendations, especially under tradi-
tional systems of production, have yet
to be demonstrated.

Seven cestode parasites are known to
be common in ruminants in West Afri-
ca. However, the most important, econ-
omically, are the metacestodes of T.
saginata and Echinococcus granulosus.
Point prevalence surveys and official
abattoir statistics from many countries
suggest that T. saginata cysticercosis is
widespread in virtually all the countries,
with prevalence rates of up to 22% in
some location. Although these observa-
tions were made several years ago and
very httle data is available on the cur-
rent situation it is unhkely that the
situation has changed significantly from
that portrayed by the existing records.
High endemicity of T. saginata cysticer-
cosis is generally associated with poor
socio-economic development and stan-

dard of personal hygiene; environ-
mental pollution with raw or inadequa-
tely-treated human waste; consumption
of under-cooked infected beef; inade-
quate abattoir facilities and poor meat
hygiene practices. Environmental conta-
mination with tapeworm eggs is com-
mon in rural communities, nomadic
settlements and some urban communi-
ties where there are lack of sanitary
facilities and/or efficient methods of
sewage treatment, resulting in the dis-
posal of infected human waste on to
farm land and water courses accessible
to cattle. Contaminated hands and
clothing of infected farm personnel is
believed to be an important method of
neonatal infection in endemic areas.
However, the extent and significance of
these sources and methods of trans-
mission of infection have not been
clearly established in any part of the
region. On the other hand, field obser-
vations have shown that there is a sig-
nificant inverse relationship between
age of cattle and the prevalence of live
cysts. Consequently, very few live cysts
are normally encountered at meat
inspection in very old animals which
form the majority of animals slaugh-
tered for human consumption.

Effective control of T. saginata cysticer-
cosis must therefore address, among
other things, the problem of human
taeniosis and its associated environ-
mental pollution with human waste; the
control of metacestode infection in
cattle, improvement of the general
socio-economic status of the people,
standard of public health awareness
and education, especially among cattle
rearers and butchers whose co-opera-
tion and understanding are crucial for
successful implementation of modern
meat hygiene practices. The only speci-
fic control option currently being im-
plemented in all the countries, with
VEirying degrees of success, is meat
inspection. However, it is probably true
to say that, with the exception of the
major urban centres in these countries,
the bulk of the beef sold to the rest of
the public derive either from in-
adequately inspected meat or from
uninspected, privately or clandestinely
slaughtered animals. Nevertheless, in
spite of the lack of effective control
programmes the prevalence of human
infection appears to be low in many
rural and urban areas, at least in some
countries such as Nigeria. Three factors
may have contributed to this: (1) the
relatively low beef consumption by
large sections of the population, espe-
cially the young; (2) the low infection
rate in the predominantly old cattle
slaughtered for meat; (3) traditional
home-cooking is usually thorough.

It is evident that, with a few exceptions,
much of the available epidemiological
data and information are of a basic and
general nature, and those on cysticer-
cosis in particular are based mainly on
point prevalence surveys of slaughter
animals, conducted some 10 to 20 years
ago. Very few large-scale, long-term
and controlled studies have been con-
ducted. More importantly, there is a
noticeable decline in the quantity, qua-
lity and momentum of epidemiological
research during the past 5 years. Some
of the areas requiring urgent investiga-
tion include the following: (1) the eco-
nomic impact of chronic and subclinical
helminthosis, with particular reference
to PGE and fasciolosis in traditionally-
reared stock; (2) appropriate and cost
effective measures for the control of
helminth infections in traditional sys-
tems of production and the evaluation
of strategic anthelmintic treatment pro-
grammes for the control of infections
in intensively managed herds and
flocks; (3) improved diagnostic tech-
niques, including the use of biomole-
cular technology and enzyme immuno-
-assays for the ante-mortem diagnosis
of metacestodoses, to complement
meat hygiene measures; (4) the rela-
tionship between host genetic variability
and acquired resistance to GI
nematodes; (5) host-parasite relation-
ships, with emphasis on the influence of
malnutrition and concurrent infections
on the immunological responses, health
and productivity of the host.
Furthermore, future studies should
emphasise multidisciplinary, large-scale,
on-farm and laboratory studies. This
will require, among other things, team
work and a coordinating centre, backed
up by efficient data storage, processing
and communication facilities. Unfortu-
nately it seems unlikely that any major
and sustainable research programmes
can be initiated in any of the countries
at the moment without substantial
external financial, technical and logistic
assistance, in view of the current state
of their economies which, in some
cases, has been exacerbated by an
apparently endemic geo-political insta-
bility.

(Department of Veterinary Parasitology
and Entomology, University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, Nigeria. Present address: De-
partment of Life Science, University of
Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD,
UK).

Annual Conference of the International
Embryo Transfer Society (lETS). Location:
Salt Lake City, Utah. Information: Mr. Carl
Johnson, Intemational Embryo Transfer
Society, 309 W. Clark Street, Champaign, II
61820 (Tel. : 1.217.3563182, telefax: 1.217-
.3984119).

goat health and production. Information:
CIPPOC/CIRAD-EMVT, Division de l\'en-
seignement, 10, rue Pierre Curie, 94704
Maisons-Alfort cedex (Tel.: 33.1.43688873,
telefax: 33.1.43752300).

26 February - 24 May, 1996
18®quot; Animal Feed Training programme
(AFTP). Organized by. IPC Livestock, Bar-
neveld College. Candidates may enter fol-
lowing completing of one of the interna-
tional IPC animal husbandry courses. Direct
entry is also possible. Programme includes
theoretical and practical subjects, trainee-
ships, workshops etc. Subjects: technical,
nutritional, organizational and economic
aspects of animal feed production. Fees in-
cluding board and lodging: Dfl. 12,000 or
14,500 (direct entry). Information: IPC Live-
stock Bameveld College, Dep. of Intema-
tional Studies and Cooperation Programmes,
P.O. Box 64, 3770 AB Bameveld (Tel.: 31.-
342.414881, telefax: 31.342.492813, e-mail:
ipcbarvr@knoware.nl).


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