Editorial board
J.H.A. de Gooijer
R.W. Paling DVM PhD
(editor-in-chieQ
W.D. Vink MVM
P.R. van Weeren DVM PhD

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Office for Intemational
Cooperation
P.O. Box 80.163
3508 TD UTRECHT

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The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University has adopted the policy to
concentrate its intemational links with partners institutions on a limited number of
veterinary schools. With these institutes longterm relations are built up which are of
mutual interest to the institutions and which include a broad scope of collaborating
activities. These links provide opportunities for students, postgraduate students and
staffmembers, academic as well as technical, administrative and management staff,
to meet colleagues, to exchange ideas, to make fiiendships and occasionnally to visit
each others institute and country. By concentrating the collaboration on a limited
numbers of faculties located in different continents, it is envisaged to create for the
Utrecht staff and students a wide spectrum of opportunities for study, research,
teaching and education. With respect to the transfer of knowledge and technologies
to developing countries it is also through the links with these partners that Utrecht
tries to reach a wider circle of institutes in the country or the region, hi 1997, EQUA-
TOR will pay attention to the various aspects of this collaboration by back ground
articles on these partner institues, interviews with students and staff members and
reports on joint research activies, workshops etc. In this issue EQUATOR attention
is given to the collaboration with the veterinary faculties of Harare and Maputo in
southern Africa.

The Utrecht Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has a longterm commitment for collabora-
tion with the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Zimbabwe (UZ),
Harare. About 10 years ago the first steps were set on this path by Prof John Lawrence
and Prof Grahim Hill of UZ and Prof Dik Zwart and Prof Simon van den Bergh of
Utrecht. With substantial fmancial support irom the European Commision and Utrecht
University and a lot of enthousiasm of the staffmembers, a solid basis for longterm
collaboration was made. Utrecht University, and for that matter the Netherlands higher
education system, has no tradition in awarding masters degrees. However, realizing
the needs of our partners for postgraduate training has stimulated the Utrecht faculty
to initiate the Master of Science programme. The programme was started some years
ago with the organization of the MSc course on Veterinary Epidemiology and Herd
Health. In 1996 a start was made with the MSc Course on Animal Pathology, an
inititive of the Department of Pathology. Prof Eric Gruys, the course director, coordi-
nates the inputs from the department and the research projects of the participants.
EQUATOR spoke with some of the Zimbabwean partcipants of the course about their
first impressions.

Musa Tivapasi comes from a rural part of
Zimbabwe, which stimulated him to study
veterinary medicine. quot;I have always wan-
ted to see my animals becoming better. I
joined the veterinary school in Harare in
1989 and graduated in 1993.1 got a posi-
tion as a teaching assistant, fu^st in bioche-
mistry and later in clinical pathology. At
the moment I am a staff development
fellow of the University of Zimbabwe,
sponsored by the European Union. Since
a year I am studying pathology, with the
emphasis on clinical pathology. I am
mainly interested in the mechanisms of
diseases, especially acute phase respon-
ses.quot;

Borden Mushonga also originates from a
rural part, called Rusape. quot;I joined the
University\'s veterinary school in 1990.1
took a year to do anatomy in 1993 in
which direction I graduated. Then I joined
the mainstream veterinary course which
I concluded in 1995. I worked for 5
months as a staff development fellow,
assisting with the teaching of coiu^ses in
anatomy. I have one publication on the
anatomy of the crocodile. And here in -
Utrecht I am doing pathology in the first
year of the programme. The second part
of my programme will be on anatomy. My
research is on the passive stay apparatus,
the way it is stabilized in the knee of the
horse. I am also attending a course in
neuro-anatomy which is organized by the
department of Functional Morphology.quot;

Absolom Murondoti comes from Buhera.
This part of Zimbabwe is rather dry and
is only suitable for animal production.
quot;That it why I got involved in animal
health. I eruquot;olled the University of Zim-
babwe in 1990 and I completed in 1994.
Upon my completion I was employed in
the Clinical Department, in the teaching
hospital. I was mainly interested in large
animal medicine. Towards the end of my
employment confract I was concemed with
large animals in the ambulatory clinic. I
got appointed to a staff development
fellowship to do large animal medicine,
which I am doing at the moment at the
Ufrecht department of Pathology. So I am
doing pathology as the basis of my course.
My research project will be on a subject
in relation to large animal medicine. I will
concenfrate on metabolic diseases and my
project is on the fatty liver syndrome in
cows.quot;

Can you explain why you came to the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of -
Utrecht University, to participate in a
Master of Science course on animal
pathology?

Musa: quot;1 came to Utrecht to do clinical
pathology, mainly because of the reputati-
on of this University and its very good
reputation for clinical pathology. The
second reason why I came here is because
of the link between our University and
this University that is sponsored by the
European Union. Because of these 2
reasons and the fact that the University of
Zimbabwe cannot offer clinical pathology
at Master\'s level, I found it appropriate
to come to this place.quot;

Absolom: quot;The department of Pathology
is not my destination. I am using the first
general year of this MSc course as a step-
ping stone to clinical medicine, because
if I understand things at basic levels, it
will help me to understand clinical disease
during the second phase of my course.quot;

Borden: quot;I could have done a course on
Master\'s level in anatomy in Zimbabwe,
but I came to Utrecht because there was
no scholarship for the master\'s course in
Zimbabwe and also because everybody
else in our group who was selected for a
staff development fellowship went to
Europe.quot;

Musa: quot;I was supposed to start already in
1995, but I think because of financial
reasons my application went late to my
sponsor, which is the EU and I got delayed
by one year. My papers were worked on
for one and a half year, so I did not come
in a hurry. I had ample time to prepare my
visit.

Borden: Our applications went rather late
and it looked as if they were going to fail,
like in the case of Musa the year before.
However, we were informed on the 15 th
of September, 1996, that we were suppo-
sed to leave on the 20th of the same
month.

Unfortunately I did not have much choice
myself and my family is not very happy
with it. But, coming to Utrecht was the
best for me under the circumstances.
The first few days were terrible. You have
to leave your family unattended there.
There are still a lot of problems at home,
especially financial problems. The scho-
larships cover only ourselves. We had to
resign from the University in Harare and
now our families have to depend on them-
selves. So we have asked the university
back home to help us.

Absolom: quot;hi terms of arrangements there
is need for improvement, especially on the

application procedure and the financial
aspects. Because although you know you
have to go at the end of the year, the actu-
al departure date is kept so close. There
is no guarantee that you will be going until
you actually go. Whatever you do in pre-
paring to leave, you do it thinking; quot;I may
go, I may not goquot;. So, you do not make
adequate preparations, until the day you
are in the plane, and when you are in the
plane it is already too late. When you
come here and yotuquot; family is there the
distance is another problem.

Musa: quot;Prof Gruys helped us a lot. He
understood our culture; he understood that
we were different from the people arotmd
here and he really took care of us and our
needs in this most important period upon
arrival in the Netherlands. For me this was
my fu-st attempt to be outside of Zimbab-
we and to be outside my own cultural
cocoon. It was so different......quot;

Borden: quot;When I arrived at the airport,
Musa, who arrived a month earlier, and
Prof Gruys were waiting for us. Prof
Gruys took us here to register with the
Department and he accompanied us to the
places we were going to stay. Our coming
here was made much easier by Prof
Gruys.quot;

Absolom: quot;I agree that the reception was
good. Problems, if you can call them
problems, can be expected if you arrive
in a new country. Take for instance the
language problem. If you go to the shops
and you want to buy things all items are
described in Dutch, which you caimot
read, and if you ask a person in the shop
for help he or she may only speak Dutch.
But this is acceptable and expectible.
The weather was also a shock to us. We
discovered soon that some of the clothes
we had brought were completely useless,
they were too light. So we had to buy new
clothes, but I guess now we are climati-
zed.quot;

Musa: quot;Yes, the winter was spectacular.
It was my first time to see snow. It was
also my first incline to try skating. It was
really beautiful. But I have learned that
where ever I go in the future, I will bring
warm clothing. The experience of getting
very cold fingers is tmforgettable.quot;

Borden: quot;Rain was for me the only form
of precipitation, so to see snow is really
phantastic. I also tried skating but I could
not even stand up!quot;

Absolom: quot;I agree, but I would not pres-
cibe it as spectacular, but as harsh, becau-
se it kept me indoors for quite some time.
By the time I was thinking of getting some
photo\'s, the snow was going away. But it
was a fine experience. Regarding winter
I can tell that we are more or less winter
people. Because when we came it was the
end of winter in Zimbabwe; we came to
the winter in the Netherlands, and when
we go for holidays, it will be winter in

Musa: quot;I find them very helpfiil. It is not
easy to associate with the youths, but the
other age groups are quite helpful. They
accommodate and understand. We have
very few contacts outside the university,
but we have some personal friends who
came to Zimbabwe and now invite us to
their places.quot;

Borden: quot;I find the Dutch people quite
phantastic people and there is not the
slightest sign of racism, Absolom went to
Belgium and he was told that there were
special white clubs and black clubs. This
kind of things do not happen in the
Netherlands.quot;

Absolom: quot;That was in Antwerpen, When
I was there and asked somebody the way,
he would not stop to pay attention. The
clubs are divided. Blacks go to this area
and whites to that. It may not be official,
but it exists. In the Netherlands we went
to some clubs and just mixed with the
people. However, with the Dutch people
you have to make your presence felt. We
have to talk so that they talk to us. If you
do not talk they seem to form a closed
society. You have to break into it by
talking to them,:

Borden: quot;If you tell them you have a
problem, they will help you; if you do not
tell them, they will not ask. They are a bit
distant, but that is what I prefer.quot;

Back to the course: You did your first
exams. Can you describe some of your
impressions?

Musa: quot;Personally I say: quot;So far, so
goodquot;. Everything is well planned, up to
date, and we learn a scientific approach
especially in the veterinary field. I really
get what I came here for, a scientific ap-
proach to veterinary medicine.quot;

Borden: I would like to give all the credits
to Prof Gruys and his group. The teaching

Histology forms a major part
of the practical training in
pathology (Photo: De
Gooijer)

process here is better than what we have
in Zimbabwe, in general. The Dutch pro-
fessors really take their time to prepare the
materials and young staff are given a lot
of time before they can teach, to acquire
enough knowledge. I am told that not
everybody is allowed to teach. Only few
people are allowed to give coiuquot;ses to
students. I am quite impressed by that
system.quot;

Musa: quot;They also put personal effort in
their teaching. They are really personally
involved. Another point on the teaching
aspects I like very much is that people
who present a paper in the seminars are
from different parts of Europe, so we get
an intemational view.quot;

Absolom: quot;I do agree that the course is
well taught and well planned. I hope that
if we branch after the initial phase it will
continue to be like that, so that we can get
the best out of the scholarship. The overall
comment I will be able to give after I have
completed the whole course, but for the
part on pathology I can say I am satis-
fied.quot;

Can you give a description of what you
are doing now and of your research
project?

Borden: quot;The pathology course basically
consists of 4 blocks of which the first one
was cellular pathology. The second one
was on circulatory disturbances of inflam-
mation, the third one on immimopatholo-
gy, and the fourth one is going to be on
tumour biology. There are lectures, semi-
nars and practicals, which complement
each other on the overall understanding of
the processes that we study.quot;

Absolom; quot;The whole group is doing that
initial pathology course. Only after that
we start specializing in areas of our own
interest. In this period each one will con-
centrate on his or her research. My area
involves fatty liver syndrome, which is a
metabolic condition that occurs in dairy
cattle, especially in high producing dairy
cattle. It was found that soon after calving,
because of the energy demand, the aniamls
are going to a negative energy balance. If
they do so in good body condition, they
start mobilizing fat. This fat is taken to
the liver. It was also found that during this
period the liver is not able to quot;exportquot; all
that fat, so it accumulates in the liver.
Animals in this condition are susceptible
to other diseases, and the ability of the
animal to defend itself against diseases is
also compromised. So, my project invol-
ves the clinical monitoring of animals witii
a fatty liver, to see what diseases will
develop in that state.
I am also trying to use an acute phase
protein, haptaglobulin, to see if we can use
that to diagnose fatty liver syndrome in
dairy cows. At the moment you can only
diagnose it by a liver biopsy. So, if you
can use haptaglobulin to diagnose fatty
liver syndrome, that would be an improve-
ment.

I am going to do my research project at the
Department of Internal Medicine and at
ID-DLO in Lelystad. I will be stationed
there for 6 months, because the experi-
mental set-up is planned in that station.quot;

Musa: quot;I am doing a project on acute
phase proteins in relation to malnutrition
in rural cows and goats in Zimbabwe.
Acute phase proteins are produced when
an animal is going through a disease. So,
for my project we tiy to see what happens
to the production of these proteins during
infections and malnutrition under rural
conditions in Zimbabwe. Can we use the
acute phase proteins to monitor the health
status of the animals? Actually, my pro-
ject is split into two parts. The part I am
going to handle here in Europe, because
we do not have the facilities in Zimbabwe
and the part which I am going to do in

Zimbabwe, namely the collection of sam-
ples. I will process these samples here in
Utrecht.

This set-up implies that I will not have
holidays this year, because during the
summer holidays I will go to Zimbabwe
to collect samples from domestic animals
for 6 weeks. Then I bring them here and
finish my holiday. In September I will
start die analysis of the samples. So it will
be holiday on duty.quot;

Borden: quot;It is generally known that horses
do not lie down when they sleep during the
night, unless they are sick. People always
wondered why only horses are able to
spend the whole day standing. It has been
knovra without evaluation that a horse
uses what we call passive stay apparatus,
whereby the horse locks the patella over
the head of the femur. We will try to
evaluate scientifically what is happening
in the horse; is it using energy or not using
energy to maintain this sleeping position.
If it is not using energy, what are the
stmctures that provide passive support to
the knee. I will do the project with Prof
W. A.Weijs and Dr. H.C. Schamhardt of
the Utrecht Department of Functional
Morphology, just to contribute to the
existing pool of scientific knowledge.quot;

When you return home with your new
degree after two years, what are your
prospects then?

Absolom: quot;I hope the University of Zim-
babwe will be able to offer me a place in
the Department of Clinical Veterinary
Studies in the large animal section. My
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm^^m

role in offering service to the community
will be teaching to the undergraduate
students and participating in research.
That is how I expect to proceed after my
thesis.quot;

Borden: quot;I expect to get a job in Zimbab-
we. My stay in Utrecht changed the way
I look at research. We have been exposed
to a lot of functional quot;research knowled-
gequot; and I learned new techniques. I think

Musa: quot;I think this fellowship is a golden
opportunity to me. If I go back to Zimbab-
we as a scientist I can contribute to the
scientific world at large. I think I will be
very useful in diagnostics and may be I
will be involved in teaching activities. I
think in Africa there are plenty of questi-
ons that have not been answered. We
cannot explain our own environment but
based on the training we got here we can
get a little further. I prefer a university
setting. We now realize what we can do
with veterinary medicine. I never had such
a view before my departure.quot;

Could you first tell something about the
history of the Faculty. As far as I can
remember it was founded in the sixties?

That is true. The real reason why it was
started was a poUtical one. With the onset
of the anti-colonial movement led by
Mondlane in the early 60ies, the Portu-
guese colonial authorities thought that
they would be able to control the intellec-
tual top-layer of society better if they
offered education at university level in
the country itself. Before that time evcty-
body who got a university education went
to Portugal or another European country.
However, over there they came into con-
tact with people from other parts of Afri-
ca, mainly from the francophone coim-
tries, who had much experience and were
very successfiil in tlie decolonization pro-
cess. Offering university training at home
would avoid those unwanted contacts. So,
universities were opened in the colonies
and the Veterinary Faculty started in
1964.

In intemational cooperation it is important to know your partners well. Therefore, the
EQUATOR editorial board has decided to dedicate a series of articles in the 1997
edition of EQUATOR to those veterinary faculties or other institutions with which a
regular cooperation exists. The presence of Mohamed Hanin in Utrecht, who is
working on the final chapters of his PhD thesis, was a good reason to start with the
veterinaiy faculty of the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, capital of Mozam-
bique in Southern Africa. The cooperation programme between Utrecht and Maputo
started in 1986 and is still continuing. It was a great pleasure for me (RvW) to inter-
view Mohamed as I personally have some ties with Mozambique, dating back to my
student\'s years and as Mohamed himself is an old friend of mine.

How was the quality in those days? Ve-
terinary education in Portugal itself has
never been regarded as really top of the
bill.

The quality was at least as good as in
Portugal. The reason for this is that the
Faculty was run by the staff of the Labo-
ratory for Veterinary Investigation. This
Laboratory was founded already at the
beginning of the century, under South
African pressure, after the large Rinder-
pest epidemics at the end of the last cen-
tuiy. During the years the Laboratory gai-
ned a lot of experience, especially in the
field of tsetse control. The fact that the
Mozambican Faculty was of about the
same level as the one in Lisbon, is still
reflected by the many veterinarians with
a Mozambican background, who now
have leading positions in Portugal, either
in education or in research.
The Faculty started with 10-15 students
per year but grew in later years. The best
years in colonial times were the years
1971-1973 when also a lot of modem
equipment came in. However, in those i

years all students were of Portuguese ori-
gin with the first black students coming
in as late as 1974, the transitional year
before independence. Needless to say that
all staff members were Portuguese too.

The first years were hard. Almost all staff
members returned to Portugal and even
the graduates from former years left the
country. At this very moment there are
only three veterinarians left in Mozambi-
que who graduated before 1975. Profes-
sors had to be \'imported\' from all over
the world. As Mozambique was a
marxist-leninist state in those days, many
of them came from Cuba and
Chechoslovakia. There were also rather
large numbers of people from Chili, who
had fled the country after the fall of Al-
lende in 1973. Although many of these
teachers were very good, a drop in quality
was unavoidable. The length of the cour-
se was shortened from 5 to 4 years. It
should be said that there were many stu-
dents who did not complete the study af-
ter the nominal number of years as they
had to work and study at the same time to
eam a living for themselves and often for
their families. Many of them were older
and took the opportiuiity they had not
been able to take before independence.
These students completed the course in 6-
7 years. Later, in 1985, the length of the
course came back to the original 5 years.
Now it is even SVi years. After 1980 the
number of students grew to 30-42 per
year. This number included several stu-
dents from neighbouring countries such
as Zimbabwe and Tanzania. These coun-
tries did not have faculties of their own
yet. Now the number is more or less sta-
ble at 20-27 per year.

Mohammed Harun, together
with Rob Veeneklaas, the
current project coordinator in
Utrecht, at the entrance of the
faculty in Maputo. (Photo:
Collection Harun)

There are about 30 veterinarians working
at a full-time basis, and about 5-10 are
working part-time. Ahnost all of them are
nationals now with only some Dutch and
Cuban staff members left. However,
scientifically we are still dragging behind
as only one of those staff members has a
PhD-degree. About 50% of the staff pos-
sesses a masters degree.

As I already told you, just before inde-
pendence in the early 70ies, we were very
well equipped. Then the flow of equip-
ment (and spare parts!) stopped till about
1985. You can imagine what that meant
to the Faculty. From the mid 80ies on-
wards things became somewhat better as
funds were raised by the FAO and the
Dutch and German governments who co-
fmanced new laboratories and a new Fa-
culty farm. At this moment there is still
a lack of laboratory facilities but this will
improve in the next years as the Dutch
project will finance a new library and the
Germans will finance the equipment of
new laboratories, which will be situated
in the old library.

What about the students? How do they
compare with for instance the Dutch
students?

An observation that may seem paradoxal
is that the motivation of our students has
decreased with increasing freedom of
choice. In the old marxist-leninist days
the whole economy was planned and so
were the numbers of veterinarians that
had to be educated. You were told that
you had to become a veterinarian and that
was it. Now they are free to choose but
they are less motivated and less willing to
do for instance some extra work than in
the old situation. May be this is due to the
fact that standards have fallen in the high
schools.

Clinical examination of a
patient in the field by one of
the Dutch teachers (Photo:
Collection Harun)

Compared to the Dutch students it will be
clear that the case load and the diversity
of clinical cases is incomparably higher
in Utrecht than in Mozambique. So, stu-
dents are much better prepared in a prac-
tical sense. However, in Mozambique
students get much earlier exposed to cli-
nical cases. In Utrecht you will hardly
see a clinical case before your year. I
think that is too late. Anodier thing is that
students are more thinking in terms of
research here than in Mozambique. The
Utrecht Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
has a strong tradition in research and that
is reflected in the students. In Mozambi-
que education has been in the hands of
expatriates for a very long time. These
expatriates mostly stayed for only a cou-
ple of years and they all had there own
vision. So, no real tradition could be for-

med. Now the intemational cooperation
has slowly changed to a more long-term
approach which undoubtedly is better.

Speaking about international coopera-
tion, who have been Mozambique\'s main
partners and what kind of impact did
they have?

We have had quite a lot of partners. As I
already told you, initially many of them
came from the Soviet block or their allies.
Nevertheless, we always also had con-
tacts witn countries from the Western
worid witfi the Netherlands and Germany
(GTZ) as the main partners. Contacts,
with Spain have been rather short-lived
and contacts with other Portuguese-spea-
king countries like Brazil and Portugal
itself have always suffered from lack of
funds. The same applies to the relation-
ship with Harare. Now, contacts are
being made with South Africa (Onderste-
poort) and a triangular relationship
Maputo-Harare-Pretoria is being initia-
ted. This kind of relationship is also sti-
mulated by the Dutch government, as it
is one of dieir policies to stimulate the so-
called South-South relationships.

Talking about South-South rela-tions-
hips, how does Maputo compare with
Facultiesin the neighbouring countries?

At this moment rather poor I am afraid,
as most of these faculties are brand-new
and well equipped like Harare, Lusaka
and Dar-Es-Salaam or they have been
completely refurnished in recent years
like Onderstepoort near Pretoria.

How is the situation with respect to em-
ployment for veterinarians who recently
graduated? Where do they work and is
there work for them?
At this moment there are about 200 vete-
rinarians in the country {that has a size
of about 20 times the Netherlands,
RvW). Some time ago about 95% was
employed by die state, but that number is
falling rapidly. Now they have to fmd
their own job after graduation. Some .are
employed by intemational organizations
or non-govemmental aid organizations.
Others work for private companies. There
are now for instance two large private
small animal clinics in Maputo, that em-
ploy about 5-10 vets each. In the large
animal sector there are no private practi-
tioners, the Faculty being the only large
animal clinic. There is no such tradition
and the value of the animals is different
to that in the Netherlands. Normally no
large investments will be made to cure a
certain animal. On the other hand, there
are quite a few vets employed by large
livestock companies and there are even
colleagues acting as directors of those
companies. There is still enough room for
growth. With increasing specialization in
the veterinary profession and a strong
economic growth (about 6% last year) I
think that the market will have sufficient
capacity to absorb the graduates who lea-
ve the Faculty for the years to come.

A last question. What is your view of the
future, both for you personally and for
the Mozambican society as a whole?

In Maputo students are
exposed to clinical cases
early in their study (Photo:
Collection Harun)

for 12 years now and I like it. I like to do
research and I also like to teach. I cannot
say the same of the administrative work
one has to do. When I was vice-dean this
kind of paperwork took a huge amount of
time.

As for the society as a whole I am not
flilly optimistic. There are a lot of social
problems in Mozambique nowadays and
cormption is widely spread. I will not
state that the old marxist-leninist system
was the solution, far from that. But in
those days the government had some kind
of a vision where to go. Now they are
much more opportunistic with no clear
vision at all.

In the veterinary field there are various
tendencies. On the one hand the quality
of the education is getting better and the-
re is an increasing stream of scientific
publications emerging from the Faculty,
on the other hand many capable veterina-
rians leave their profession for better paid
jobs in completely different areas. This is
a pity as the veterinarian is cmcial to m-
ral development. But in this field unfortu-
nately also the vision is lacking and there
is no planification.

Since the departure of Merel Langelaar
in 1996, the editorial board missed the
inputs of motivated students. Fortimate-
ly, Daan Vink, a 5 th year veterinary
student, was willing to take her place in
the board per January 1997. Daan intro-
duces himself to the readers of EQUA-
TOR in the following way.

I was bom in Zambia and grew up in
Southern Africa. Development coopera-
tion is not new for me. I have always
felt an involvement with the problems
facing developing countries, and going
back to work in these coimtries always
seems a natural thing to do. During my
study of veterinary medicine at Utrecht
University, I am consciously working
towards that goal.

Shortly after commencing my studies, I
became involved with the foundation
Diergeneeskimde in Ontwikkelingssa-
menwerking (DIO), the Dutch member
of the Vétérinaires sans Frontières -
Europa (VSF-E) network. VSF-E is a
platform of cooperating European vete-
rinary development organizations. I
still am very committed to this work.
Five years of working within DIO and
VSF-E gave me the opportimity to ac-
quire a measure of experience in (vete-
rinary) development project formulation
and implementation, and in organizati-
on and management. Through the con-
tacts I built up at intemational mee-
tings, I was able to visit a number of
projects being carried out by these orga-
nizations in the field. These experiences
consistently reaffirmed my dedication to
work in the field of development coop-
eration.

As a student I have also been involved
in the organization and execution of
scientific studies. In 1995,1 carried out
a cross-sectional epidemiological study
into subclinical mastitis in Egypt\'s Nile
delta. Currently I am preparing a foiuquot;-
month research study into the prevalen-
ce and etiology of central nervous dis-
orders in goats in Mozambique.

I hope I will be able to make a valid
contribution to EQUATOR in the co-
ming years. I look forward to this op-
portunity of gaining more insight into
the developments within the field of
veterinary development work, and to
meeting other people active within it.

There is general concern that the genetic
variation within the few domestic animal
species is disappearing through breed
substitution and crossbreeding. Any re-
duction in die diversity of genetic resour-
ces narrows the scope to respond to
changes in the environment, disease chal-
lenges, or demand patterns. In the tropics,
however, the most serious concern is the
miminent loss of locally adapted breeds.
An important strategy in the conservati-
on and utilization of livestock resources
is the dissemination of information on
these resources. For cattle, Marleen Feli-
us has published \'Cattle Breeds - an ency-
clopedia\'*. She provides an overview of
approximately 700 cattle breeds throug-
hout the world in words and images. The
breeds are classified according to geo-
graphical distribution, historical back-
ground and external features. Information
is also given on functions, and adaptive,
production and special characteristics.
The animals have been drawn to scale, in
water-colours. In doing so, Marleen has
succeeded in linking-up art and science!

The exploitation of genetic resistance to
diseases is becoming increasingly impor-
tant in livestock development program-
mes, particularly where disease control
measures are too costly, too complex to
implement, or ecologically unsound. In
Africa, a prominent example of under-
used genetic resources is trypanotolerant
livestock. The use of trypanotolerant li-
vestock is seen as the only practical sus-
tainable way to increase livestock produc-
tion in tsetse-infested areas.

The Internet World Wide Web site
http://www.zod.wau.nl/~www-
vlVfelius/index.html presents Marleen
Felius\' information on the trypanotolerant
cattle breeds from West Africa. The
N\'Dama is already well known for its
resistance to tiypanosomiasis, and is wi-
dely represented in literature. However,
infonnation on the West African Short-
horn breeds is scanty.

Both Marleen Felius and the Department
of Animal Production Systems are very
much interested in new information and
in exchanging information on the breeds
presented. We welcome readers of this
web site to send e-mail messages to:
Fokje.Steenstra@DPS.VH.WAU.NL

Prof Herman van Keulen
Department of Animal Production Sys-
tems, Wageningen Agricultural Universi-
ty, Wageningen, the Netherlands.

*Marleen Felius (1995). Cattle breeds an
encyclopedia. Misset, Doetinchem.
ISBN 90 5439 017 4

Invitation to participate in an electronic conference on: Balancing livestock,
the environment, and human needs

If you are involved in livestock produc-tion, policy formulation, research, or deve-
lopment activities and are concerned about the interaction between livestock pro-
duction and environmental degradation, the Intemational Livestock Research
Institute (ILRI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO), International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, and INFO-
RUM (an Intemational Non Governmental Organization), would like to invite you
to participate in a global electronic conference from March 10 to May 24, 1997.
Since most stakeholders who are concemed about these issues do not have access
to electronic mail, we are setting up a consultative process that will also include
face-to-face local interviews and national roundtable discussions in 15-20 coun-
tries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America where short-term demand for livestock
products is in conflict with longer-term concem for environmental degradation,
such as deforestation, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, nutrient depletion,
pollution from excessive nutrients, etc.

(a) grazing-systems, (b) mixed crop /
livestock systems, and (c) industrial
(land-detached) livestock systems.
Conferees will then have the option of
dividing into groups organized by types
of system to discuss and identify possi-

The electronic conference will begin
with an overview of the issues related
to live-stock and environment interac-
tions and the types of environmental
degradation that can be associated with:
ble future policy and technology op-
tions and research and development
strategies. Throughout the 12 week
conference, the emphasis will be on
sharing experiences and discussing is-
sues of common interests that could
lead to future cooperation among insti-
tutions with different perspectives but a
common concem for human welfare
and the design of policies and techno-
logies that provide people with both
environmental services (such as clean
water and air, biodiversity, etc.) and
important livestock products and servi-
ces (such as meat, dairy products, man-
ure, animal traction, and recycling was-
tes, etc.).

While the global electronic exchange
will be conducted primarily in English,
some resources have been allocated for
translation from Spanish and French to
English. More information will be avai-
lable soon.

This electronic conference is a fol-
low-up activity to a multi-donor study
on live-stock and the environment that.

was coordinated by FAO, the World
Bank and US AID. Other donors that
supported the study included Denmark,
the European Union, France, Germany,
the Netherlands, and the United King-
dom. Results of this study which has
just been completed (January 1997)
will be released as an input to this elec-
tronic conference at various stages. The
specific objectives of the consultative
process (including both the face-to-face
and electronic components) are:

1.nbsp;to give all stakeholders the opportu-
nity to have their views on livestock,
environment, and human welfare inter-
actions included in a position paper to
be developed at a global meeting in the
Nether-lands in June, 1997.

2.nbsp;based on all stakeholders perspec-
tives, to identify policy, research, and
development strategies to alleviate the
negative and enhance the positive im-
pacts of live-stock on natural resources
indifferent types of livestock producti-
on systems in different countries and
ecoregions

3.nbsp;to identify areas of common interests
which can lead to future research and
development institutional collaboration,
partnerships, networks, etc.

In order to participate in the electronic
conference, you need to have access to
Electronic Mail (E-Mail). The Listser-
ver and various Lists that we will be
using for the discussion have been set
upon FAO\'s computer in Rome. To join
the conference please:

Send an E-Mail message to the address:
Mailserv@Mailserv.fao.org What you
put in the subject line of the E-Mail
message is optional, but the text that
you send should read: Subscribe
LxE-L. By sending in this subscribtion
message you will be adding your -
E-Mail address to the Livestock and
Environment Interaction List , where
we will begin our exchange of informa-
tion before we divide into subgroups by
subscribing to other Lists. After you
send in this E-Mail message you should
receive two E-Mail messages from
Mailserv (the name of Listserver on the
FAO computer). One message will be
an acknowledgment from Mailserv that
you are subscribed; the other message
(also from Mailserv) will include infor-
mation about how to unsubscribe from
the LxE List and the request that you
introduce yourself

The message asking you to introduce
yourself will include the instruction that
you send a message to the address:
LxE-L@mailserv.fao.org (NOTE! this
address is different from the address
that you used to subscribe). This is the
address that we will be using for the
conference. Please follow the instruc-
tions and send an E-Mail address (to:
LxE-L@mailserv.fao.org) that includes
the following information: Your Name,
Institution, Address, Tel, Fax, E-Mail
Address. Two or three sentences (no
more!) describing your interest in lives-
tock, environment, and human welfare
issues.Please subscribe and introduce
yourself as soon as possible! The for-
mal conference will begin March 10. If
you have any problems subscribing or
introducing yourself, please send an
E-Mail messageto either Bob Hart
(Bhart@undp.org) or Victor Mares
(V.Mares-ETH@cgnet.com). On behalf
of the Electronic Conference organizing
committee from ILRI, FAO, IDRC, and
INFORUM, we look forward to your
participation in this important event.

For the Netherlands a discussion group
will formed and those who are intere-
sted to participate should register ac-
cording to the instructions in the invita-
tion and inform Ir. Arend Jan Nell of
the Intemational Agriculture Center (E-
Mail: A.J.NELL@iac.agro.nl) of your
interest to join a discussion group in the
Netherlands.

Improving the Delivery of Animal
Health Services in Developing
Countries: a Literature Review

Sarah Holden, Steve Ashley and
Peter Bazeley
nagement. It represents a review of
over 250 references in the English lang-
uage literature, carried out by Livestock
in Development for the Overseas Deve-
lopment Administration.

Empirical evidence: a framework for

Fiscal pressures have commonly redu-nbsp;comparison
ced the availability and quality of state

veterinary services. This new reportnbsp;Assessment of the performance of state

evaluates some of the opportunities fornbsp;veterinary services

improving the supply of those animal

health services that require public ma-nbsp;The third sector

Livestock in Development, P.O. Box
20, Crewkeme, Somerset, TA 18 7
YW, UK. Tel: 44.146074874, Fax:
44.146075874. E-mail:
100121.3216@compuserve. com

Docteur vétérinaire, il devra posséder
une expérience de trois (3) ans mini-
mum dans l\'exercise du métier en
clientèle privée. En tant qu\'assistant
technique à l\'institution financière
chargé de la mise en place des crédits
aux privés, une expérience dans des
projects d\'appui à la privatisation de la
médecine vétérinaire est requise ainsi
qu\'une connaissance en gestion et suivi
de microcrédits. Il devra avoir une
maiti-ise totale de la langue française,
de l\'outil informatique, une bonne ca-
pacité de communication et une aptitu-
de à conduire des programmes de for-
mation.

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 Dierge-
neeskunde, Veterinary 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
directiy.

Sari Ltd. Management Consultants,
Avenue Louise 90, 1050 Brussels,
Belgium (tel.: 32.2.5128895, tele-
fax: 32.2.5129577).

HVA International, a member of the Keep Group of companies, is a world-wide operating company concentrating on agriculture
and rural development, providing consultancy, engineering, management and technical assistance services to the agro-industry
and rural communities.

HVA International is currently engaged in some 20 projects in the tropics and sub-tropics

REQUIREMENTS

University degree in Veterinary Science and/or Animal
Husbandry

An age of 35-40 years with a minimum of 5 years of
experience in tropica! or sub-tropical areas
Fluency in spoken and written English, preferably also
French and/or Spanish

Excellent representative and communication capabilities
and willingness to travel frequently to remote areas in the
world

FAO/IAEA Symposium on \'Diagnosis
and control of livestock diseases using
nuclear and related techniques\', \'Towards
disease control in the 21^ centuiy\'.
Organized by: The Animal Production
and Health Services of the Joint FAQ/-
lAEA Division. The Programme contains
the following sessions: Serological
aspects; Molecular aspects; Ticks /
Vaccines / Epidemiology; Monitoring /
Training; Information / Modelling;
SateUites / Climate and Considerations of
impact. Location: VIC, Vienna. Infor-
mation and registration: IAEA, P.O. Box
100, A-1400 Vienna (Tel.: 43.1.2060.-
26054; telefax: 43.1.20607; e-mail:
crowther@ripol .iaea.or.at).

4¹\'\' Biennial meeting of the Society for
Tropical Veterinary Medicine (STVM-
97). Programme: (1) Molecular epide-
miology of tropical diseases with
subjects: Molecular techniques and
diagnosis; Epidemiology; Application of
molecular epidemiology to tropical
countries; Tropical diseases as a model in
molecular epidemiology. (2) Hemo-
parasitic diseases and their vectors with
subjects: Tick biology; Tick pathogen
interactions; Integrated control of tick and
tick borne diseases; Trypanosomiasis
diagnosis and control; Tsetse biology and
control. (3) General sessions: Contributed
papers on; Tropical veterinaiy medicine;
Disease diagnosis, management and
control, etc. Organization is in
collaboration with CIRAD-EMVT. For
infonnation; Internet STVM homepage
http; //forest.bio.ic.ac.uk/STVM.
Information; Dr. E. Camus, CIRAD, BP
2386, Jany Cedex 97002, Gouadeloupe
(FWI) (Tel.; 590.252490; telefax;
590.252492; e-mail: camus@cirad.fr).

XVIII Symposium of the Scandinavian
Society for Parasitology, with a special
mini-symposium on Human and
Veterinary Tropical Parasitology.
Information; Secretariat of Symposium
Bornholm, Danish Bilharziasis
Laboratoiy, Jaegersborg Allé ID, DK-
2929 Charlottenlund (Tel.: 45.39.-
626]68; telefax; 45.39.626121).

3quot;* 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; Dfl.
5,000. Information: IPC Livestock Bame-
veld College, Dep. of Intemational
Studies and Cooperation Programmes,
P.O. Box 64, 3770 AB Bameveld (Tel.;
31.342.414881, telefax: 31.342.-
492813, e-mail: io@ipcdier.hacom.nI).

10- 15 August, 1997
16*^ International Conference of the
World Association for Advancement of
Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP).
Organized by; Parasitological Society for
the Advancement of Southern Africa. In-
formadon: 16*^ WAAVP Conference,
Event Dynamics, P.O. Box 567,
Stathaven, 2031, South Africa (Tel.;
27.11.8836155, telefax: 27.11.-
8839643).

25\'\'\' Intemational course on dairy farming
in rural development. Course programme;
Introduction; Dairy development;
Farming systems; Statistics; Economics
and agricultural credit; Breeding; Pasture
production; Nutrition and feeding; Animal
health; Reproduction and AI, Extension
and case studies. Course fee: Dfl. 5,500.
Closing date: 1 May 1997. Infoi-madon
and registration: Intemational Agricul-
tural Centre (lAC), P.O. Box 88, 6700
AB Wageningen (Tel.: 31.317.490111,
telefax: 31.317.418552, e-mail
iac@iac.agro.nl).

18nbsp;August 1997 - 20 Februaiy, 1998
27quot;\' Intemational course on poultry hus-
bandry and 27^ Intemational course on
pig husbandry. Organized by; IPC
Livestock Intemational, Bameveld Col-
lege. These courses will mn at the same
time. Following these courses participa-
tion is possible in the 20quot;* Intemational
animal feed training programme (AFTP),
which mns from 23 Febmary to 22 May,
1998. Direct entry in this last course is
also possible. Fees including board and
lodging: Poultiy course; Dfl. 24,500; Pig
course; Dfl. 24,500, Feed course; Dfl.
12,000 or 14,500 (direct entiy). Closing
date: 1 May, 1997. Information: IPC
Livestock Bameveld College, Dep. of
Intemational Studies and Cooperation
Programmes, P.O. Box 64, 3770 AB Bar-
neveld (Tel.: 31.342.414881, telefax:
31.342.492813, e-mail;
io@ipcdier.hacom.nl).

24 - 29 August, 1997
World Congress on Food Hygiene and
12*^ Intemational symposium of the
World Association of Veterinary Food
Hygienists. Congress theme; Healthy
animals, healthy food, healthy consumers.
Information scientific programme; Prof
Dr. J.G. van Logtestijn, Drieklinken 63,
NL-3972 EC Driebergen. Information
and registration; Royal Netherlands
Veterinaiy Association, Mrs. D. Raasing,
P.O. Box 14031, NL-3508 SB Utrecht
(Tel.: 31.30.2510111, telefax: 31.-
302511787, e-mail:
knmvd@pobox.mu.nl).

Intemational Theriological Congress
(7ITC) and Symposium on \'Veterinarians
in conservation biology\'. The symposium
is organized by: World Association of
Wildlife Veterinarians. For information
about and contributions to the symposium
contact: Dr. A.W. English, University of
Sidney, Department of Animal Health,
Private Mailbag 3, Camden, NSW 2579,
Austraha (Telefax: 61.46.552931).

14- 18 September, 1998
IX Internationa) Conference of the Asso-
ciation of Institutions of Tropical Vet-
erinaiy Medicine (AITVM). Organized
by: Faculty of Veterinary Science,
University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box MP
167, Harare. Location: Intemational
Conference Centre, Harare.

Editorial board
J.H.A. de Gooijer
R.W. Paling DVM PhD
(editor-in-chief)
W.D. Vink MVM
P.R. van Weeren DVM PhD

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Office for International
Cooperation
P.O. Box 80.163
3508 TD UTRECHT

The Netherlands
Tel.: 31.30.2532116
Fax: 31.30.2531815
E-mail: bic@bic.dgk.ruu.nl

Subscription is free of charge.
For changes in address and termi-
nation of subscription
please retum the corrected label to
the editorial office.

quot;The year after my graduation I was
posted by the Government in the Eastern
Province and I work now in Lundazi
district, where I am the head of depart-
ment of the veterinary service.
In the Eastern Province I was appointed
by the Government, but the project there
was with Belgian government develop-
ment cooperation. The coordinator was
Dr. Berkvens from the Tropical Institute
in Antwerp. They provided most of the
funding and did the research work. As a
government veterinarian I was not at-
tached to the project, but we had people
who were counterparts to the Belgians.
We worked in combination.quot;

quot;My main duties were disease monito-
ring, surveillance and control and a bit of
administration. The major diseases are
anthrax, trypanosomosis. East Coast
fever, black leg, anaplasmosis and heart-
water. And you tend to find minor hel-
minthiasis.

East Coast fever and one on trypanoso-
mosis. Three times a year we are requi-
red to go out into the field, get samples
and vaccinate yotmg cows. In the big
region I used to work we had the samples
analysed, to see the prevalence of both
East cost fever and trypanosomosis. But
in my small district Lundazi I could do
the analysis myself with a microscope
and a centrifuge.

The infrastructure in the field is run
down, but previously we had very good
crush pens and dip tanks. In that time it
was not difficult to handle animals. But
now you have to struggle during sam-
pling, to see what is happening in the
district. You have to cast the animal
down with the risk that something will
happen, the animals are not used to being
handled anymore. However, we are ma-
naging. But actually, long time ago the
infrastructure was there.quot;

STUDYING FOR AN
MSC DEGREE IN UTRECHT (2)

an impression from a participant in the course on
Veterinary Epidemiology and Herd Health

Tembo Mumba comes from Zambia. He got his veterinary education at the University
ofZambia in Lusaka and graduated in 1993. As Lundazi district\'s veterinaiy officer
and head of department, Tembo Mumba is involved in the monitoring and control of
diseases like trypanosomosis and East coast fever. Because he wanted to improve his
knowledge in this field, he applied for a place in the Master of Science course on
quot;Veterinary epidemiology and herd healthquot;, which started in September 1996 at the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University, the Netheriands. Tembo
Mumba discusses with the editor of EQUATOR some aspects of the veterinary
situation in his home country and gives his impressions on the course.

lence of about 25 percent in my district.
Long time ago the government had the
pohcy of giving free drugs and free con-
trol measures like tsetse fly control. But,
since our economy has been running
down, all those free services are cancel-
led. Now the farmer finds that he has to
buy drugs for his animals, and these are
expensive. We tend to have a lot of casu-
alties since the farmers cannot afford
drugs.

For East Coast fever, however, we still
have a project funded by the Belgian
government, where we vaccinate all the
cows at a reduced fee. East Coast fever
used to claim a lot of young cows. But,
ever since we started the immunization in
1985, there has been an increase in the
number of animals that have no pro-
blems with East Coast fever. Although
once in a while you can have cases of
animals which were not brought for
immunization.

The other diseases like anthrax and black
leg are seasonal, and when there is an
outbreak, measures are put in place right
there and then. But we do not have a
longstanding arrangement. If there is a
large outbreak you have to do somet-
hing.quot;

During your second job in Lundazi
district you found out about the MSc
course on Veterinary Edpidemiology
and Herd Health in Utrecht, the Nether-
lands ...

quot;What actually happened -1 do not know
how they arrange it - is that in the rural
areas we get a very big book, with all
sorts of courses in the Netherlands. So,
that is where I saw the ad for the course
on veterinary epidemiology and herd
health. Since what I was doing, had to do
with disease monitoring, surveillance and
control, the epidemiology course was a
good course for me, which would help
me with my duties back home. You see,
we learned the basics at undergraduate
level but these were not well grounded. I
really appreciate I was accepted.quot;

quot;It was a bit tricky, because what happe-
ned: I received 2 letters from Utrecht,
which were sent 3 weeks from each ot-
her. However, they reached me together,
while I was in the middle of an immuni-
zation campaign. Also, the Embassy
people phoned that 1 was required to fly
to the Netherlands in 2 weeks time. Nor-
mally, you need to give our government
3 weeks notice, so that they can grant
study leave. Therefore, I had to stop
whatever I was doing and there was no
proper hand over. Considering that I live
alone, it was not possible to find a proper
caretaker for my house during my absen-
ce. And tiiis is really tricky, but the cour-
se was more important. If I get back and
things got lost... I can replace them. So,
within the 2 weeks I went. My bosses
were understanding and they allowed me
to go to Utrecht.quot;

quot;I knew there would be a very big diffe-
rence between the Netherlands and my
place, which is about 800 km from the
capital city. The capital is modem but
our rural places often lack power, water
and even living in the capital for some
weeks makes you find everything diffe-
rent. So coming to the Netherlands meant
a big change.

The people in the Netherlands and their
attitude are very different from the pe-
ople back home. I realise that the Dutch
are a bit closed. Okay, I like that, becau-
se people mind their own business. And
they are always strict on time, you have
to make appointments. Where I come
from, you do not have quot;agendasquot;... I can
walk up to my neighbour anytime, if I do
not find him, that is normal. I do not
have to make an appointment. But I
learned that if you want to meet people in
the right places, you have to make an
appointment. That is one thing I picked
up, and I will take it back home.
Another difference is that I come from a
mountaineous region, the Netherlands
are flat. When I arrived in the Nether-
lands at about 22.00 hours, it was still
light. I had read about this in the books,
but to experience that by 10 o\'clock at
night you can still walk in the streets,
that was amazing.

We survived the winter because tempera-
ture dropped gradually. People warned us
that it would be very cold in January, so
we waited for January but when the

An example of digital derma-
titis (Photo: Collection Dept.
of Infectious Diseases and
Immunology, Utrecht)

temperature went blissful we did not feel
the difference. Then they said: quot;May be
in Febmaryquot;. And Febraary was also
very cold, but it felt the same as January.
I think we got adapted to low temperatu-
res. It was amazing to see the little chil-
dren skate so easily but I did not try to
skate myself When my colleagues tried
the trick most of the time they spent
flatfaced on the ice. So I thought it wise
to try something else than skating.quot;

quot;In the first semester the teachers made
us adjust to work with books again and
being a student. The coordinator took
care that we could handle it. The coiu-se
opened us up and all the concepts I got
taught as undergraduate were made un-
derstood. The second semester was a bit
heavy. A lot of other subjects were intro-
duced, like statistics and mathematics. I
had not done anything on mathematics
for more than 6 years but this course
brought it back to me. Another thing is
the computer. Some of us could not even
use a keyboard. At home they did not
bother to look at the typewriter, but here
you come in, the teachers give you your
home work and want your work to be
printed. I started typing with one finger
and it took hours, but I consider it part of
the training. I can confess now that I can
type and handle the wordprocessor and
other computer programmes.
Recently we started our research and that

is going on well. If you work hard, you
can start research during the second
semester in order to save time during the
third semester to do the writing. But
towards the end of this semester we are
taking quot;economicsquot; and that is really
demanding. We normally go to farms
once in a while but with quot;economicsquot; it
is hard to combine. However, after this
last 10 weeks we can Mly concentrate on
our research.quot;

quot;My research topic is on mortellaro,
digital dermatitis. It is a claw disease
which does not occur in Zambia. But I
chose this subject for the love of science,
and also to discover and work with new
techniques. For this very research I lear-
ned the PCR technique, which I only
heard about at school. I thought I should
contribute to the scientific debate.
I am looking at the effect of treatment on
the lesions. That is the main component.
And there is one bacteria I like to moni-
tor and treat. I had to go to Ulm in Ger-
many to continue with my research be-
cause in the Netherlands we could not
find enough patients. I traveled 800 km,
did some work for two weeks and after
this period I had a day off and we went
to the moimtains in Austria. I am very
happy with the results I obtained in Ger-
many by checking patients and taking
samples. I can use the results to put
things together. When my study is finis-
hed I can tell my fellow colleagues about
the effect of antibiotic treatment and
hopefully I have made clear what micro
organism is involved.

I like to work in my district in Zambia
again. But to put my new knowledge to
immediate use there will be difficult,
because at district level we do not have
computers. We collect a lot of data which
we send to the headquarters. So if I re-
main in my small district I will have to
get a computer before I return. Otherwise
I am afraid I will get bored. You know, if
you get used to the computer.... it is like
an addiction. But the Government does
not think along those lines. They someti-
mes shift you to other areas, pending on
your qualifications.

It is a nice course where you leam a lot.
I told some of my fnends out there to
apply, because the sort of knowledge you
get, prepares you very well on how to
handle your data. The course also taught
us how to set up otuquot; own research stu-
dies. With that knowledge, I will be able
to handle whatever comes up in Zambia,
to design and carry out scientific re-
search. So if you have the chance to
come to Utrecht you should do it!

One of the main aims of cooperation be-
tween the Netherlands and developing
countries is to transfer knowledge and skills
and to assist educational establishments in
these countries. The main reason for the
establishment of intemational courses at
training institutes in the Netherlands is the
conviction that people in the developing
countries should have access to the specia-
lised knowledge and experience available
in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands Fellowship Programme
(NFP) is part of the Development
Coopera-tion Prgramme of the Nether-
lands government and the responsibility of
the Division for Education and Develop-
ment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The
objectives of the NFP are:
- to develop human potential through edu-
cation and training mainly in the Nether-
lands, with a view to diminish qualitati-
ve and quantitative deficiencies in the
availability of trained manpower in de-
veloping countries,
- to contribute to the development and
strengthening of institutions in develo-
ping countries (institution building)

The fellowships offer the opportunity to
attend an academic programme or a post-
graduate course. Nationals from (most)
developing countries can apply for these
fellowships. The programmes and courses
for which fellow-ships are available have
been selected, and information can be found
in a booklet entitled \'The Netherlands Fel-
lowship programme 1997-1998\'^. Besides,
there are possibilities for fellowships to
follow tailor-made programmes. No fel-
lowships are offered for the purpose of
\' conducting research, for initial education or
regular education for a degree at a Dutch
university.

Fellowships are intended to deepen and
broaden the knowledge and professional
skills of persons in midcareer in order to
enable them to contribute to the develop-
ment of their countries and strengthen the
capacity of the organizations by which they
are employed. The fellowships are not ai-
ming at promoting personal advancement.
They are awarded only for training in The
Netherlands for:

-nbsp;one of the 100 or so regular intemational
courses offered at one of the Institutes
for Intemational Education,

In the field of agriculture and more particu-
lar in livestock production the following
institutes organize a number of regular
courses: Wageningen Agricultural Univer-

sity (Wageningen), Intemational Agricultu-
ral Centre (Wageningen), Larenstein Inter-
national Agricultural College (Deventer),
IPC Livestock Bameveld Colle-
ge/International Training Centre on Animal
Husbandry and Milling Technology (Bame-
veld), IPC Livestock Oenkerk/Dairy Trai-
ning Centre Friesland (Oenkerk) and the
Royal Tropical Institute (KIT, Amsterdam).
For information on the eligibihty of your
country for these fellowships and on the
application procedure one should contact
the nearest Embassy of the Netherlands.

The University Fellowship Programme
(UFP) is a programme giving graduate
students from developing countries the
opportunity to participate in intemational
training courses at university level in the
Netherlands with the objective to contribute
to capacity building in the participants\'
country.

The UFP is different from the other two
NFP components in two respects:
- It is aimmg at graduate students and
individuals recently graduated at Bache-
lor\'s level from universities in develo-

ping countries;
- It offers fellowships for a number of
training courses in English, held by
Dutch universities and in a specific case
by a Dutch college.

The courses for which UFP fellowships are
available are also included in the informati-
on booklet of die Ministiy of Foreign Af-
fairs\'. The duration of the courses is be-
tween 3 and 18 months. For each of the
courses at least a Bachelor\'s Degree or
equivalent is required.

In the field of agriculture and more particu-
lar in animal health and livestock producti-
on the following institutes organize these
training courses:

Research Institute of Toxicology (course
title: Risk assessment and risk management
of chemicals).

Faculty of Biology (course title: Tropical
bees and beekeeping in tropical climates
Faculty of Veterinaiy Medicine (course
title: Veterinaiy epidemiology and herd
health)

Information and application forms are avai-
lable at the embassies and consulates of the
Netherlands . Completed forms with the
annexes should be returned to the Embassy,
that will send it to the Netheriands Organi-
zation for Intemational Cooperation in Hig-
her Education (NUFFIC) for selection.

Source The Netherlands Fel-
lowship programme 1997-
1998\', Pubhsher: Development
Cooperation Information de-
partment of the Ministry of For-
eign Affairs, The Hague, the
Netherlands, ISBN 90-5328-
105-3

Available at the embassies of the
Netherlands or Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, DVL/OS, P.O.
Box 20061, NL-2500EB The
Hague, the Netherlands

When Chris Bartels, a Dutch veterinarian, left for Cambodia in Februaiy 1993, he
was appointed as a Veterinary Advisor with Church World Service (CWS) and
seconded to the Department of Animal Health and Production in Phnom Penh at
the National Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (NVDL). In this article in EQUA-
TOR he discribes his experiences and ideas for the restructuring of veterinary
services at the farm level.

quot;Between 1984 and 1994, CWS had been supporting the day to day activities of
this laboratory. But it became obvious that such a project was better supported by
a multi-lateral organization as part of a national project. CWS was able to interest
the World Bank / IFAD for a national programme on strengthening the veterinary
services by a 5 year programme, starting in 1997.1 was involved with the National
Department of Animal Health and Production (NAHP) until I left Cambodia in
April, 1996. But, during the last one and half year, I was mainly active as media-
tor between the NVDL- and NAHP direction and the Worid Bank /IFADquot;.

Recent history of Cambodia

Until the late sixties, Cambodia had a
relatively quiet position amongst the
countries in South-East Asia. This
changed rapidly during the Vietnam

war. Because the Vietcong used Cam-
bodian terrirory for protection, Cambo-
dia became involved in this war. In
1970 a coup, with backing of the USA,
was staged in which King Sihanouk
was replaced by general Lon Nol. Du-
ring 1970-1975, the government was
too weak to deal with local guerillas
(Khmer Rouge). Just a few days before
the end of the Vietnam war, the Khmer
Rouge took control over the whole
country. People were ordered out of the
cities and were forced to work in the
country side. The coimtry was trans-
formed in one huge concentration
camp, which was completely sealed off
from contact with the outside worid.
Money, education, health services were
all eliminated. Estimates range between
1 and 2 million people (out of 7 mil-
lion) that died because of genocide,
starvation and the lack of health ser-
vices.

In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia
and installed a government which was
in charge during the next decade. Du-
ring this period Cambodia was again
not recognised by the intemational
community. This changed only when in
1990 the USA gradually modified its
policy towards Vietnam.
In 1993, general elections were held,
supported by a large UN contingency.
Only then, Cambodia was recognised

internationally and both intemational
organisations and investors became
interested.

Church World Service (CWS) is an
American Non Governmental Organi-
sation (NGO). When CWS came to
Cambodia in 1979 they were among the
first foreign organizations which en-
tered a devastated country after the un-
describable years of Khmer Rouge be-
tween 1975 and 1979. As a result of
the intemational isolation during the
Vietnamese occupation, only a few
NGO\'s were stationed in Cambodia.
Under this Vietnamese govemance not
much was done to rehabilitate the cotm-
try. Aid was primarily focused at cen-
tral level, because it was not possible to
travel freely outside the capital city.
In those years, CWS provided mainly
emergency assistance, and later it sup-
ported the National Department of Ani-
mal Health and Production (NAHP)
through vaccine supply (FMD, black-
leg) and assistance for the National
Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
(NVDL).

Starting in 1991, NGO\'s were allowed
to move freely all over the country, and
to start projects in the provinces. With
the installation of a free and fairly
elected government in 1993, multilat-
eral (World Bank, Asia Development

Bank, UNDP, IF AD, EU) and bilateral
organisations became interested in
Cambodia and were looking for pro-
grammes to assist in the rehabilitation
of the coimtry. These organisations
took over the long held positions by the
NGO\'s, enabling the NGO\'s to focus on
village and district level projects.

quot;When I moved to Battambang-ville in
Battambang province in the North
West of Cambodia in August, 1994,
there was an ongoing CWS project
since November, 1991. Two British
veterinarians had been working with
two Cambodian staff, who were sec-
onded from the provincial Office of
Animal Health and Production
(OAHP). The major emphasis of this
project was on vaccination campaigns
(FMD, blackleg and haemorrhagic sep-
ticaemia) for cattle and buffaloes in two
provinces (Battambang and Bantey
Meanchey). Beside material inputs,
there was a training programme for
provincial and district veterinarians on
various subjects.

However, the objective to have less sick
animals through strengthened veteri-
nary services was not reached. A farmer
with a sick cow, could wait for a district
veterinarian to come and pray for a
good result or be lucky and ask for
CWS to come and see his animalquot;.

Why basic animal health services?
quot;The last link in the veterinary services,
which is the one between the district
veterinarian and the farmer, did not
function and was very hard to establish
using the existing stmcture of govern-
ment services. What was needed was a
person at the village level (nearby,
well-known, tmsted) who was able to
examine, diagnose and treat an animal.
Such a person would need training and
equipment and good monitoring during
an extended period of time. Most likely
this person would not have a full-time
job seeing and treating sick animals and
he or she could be anybody with some
experience with animals, preferably a
farmer. We called it a Village Vetquot;,

Since our involvement with the Office
of Animal Health and Production
(OAHP) had been so longstanding and
intensive, it was decided to continue
this cooperation. We cooperated with
government workers to train and moni-
tor the Village Vets. The OAHP pro-
vided manpower, buildings, field expe-
rience and an infrastructure, while
CWS would provide knowledge on
training and veterinary skills, means
(transport, computer etc) and money
for materials, equipment, training cour-
ses, accommodation and additional
salaries.

By involving provincial staff of the
OAHP, general veterinary knowledge
and skills were improved, and this pro-
vided a basis for cooperation between
the Village Vet (private sector) and the
government veterinary services (public
sector).

*nbsp;The Village Vet is elected by a ge-
neral village meeting after a few ses-
sions in which the objectives of the pro-
gramme are explained by the trainers.

*nbsp;The trainers are district and provin-
cial staff of the OAHP. They are all
veterinarians by profession, but their
educational backgroimd varies between
a training course of three months at a
provincial agricultiu-al school to four
years at the Royal University.

*nbsp;The direction of the OAHP office is
appointed to this position on basis of
his personal coimections with other
government officials.

*nbsp;The CWS staff, consisting of the two
Khmer staff that had been working with
CWS before and myself The Khmer
staff are university qualified and gained
experience in the three years they have
been working with the British veteri-
narians. They are well equipped to go
out on their own and treat animals in a
correct way. They are seconded to
CWS and have followed additional
training cotu^ses in English language
skills, TOT (training of trainers), ma-
nagement, reporting and OOPP (Objec-
tive Orientated Programme Planning).

Trainers are working in groups of two
persons. They go out in the morning on
motorbikes to the commtmes were the
training of the Village Vets is con-
ducted. The training is given at the
compound of the communal pagoda.
About 10-15 villages form a commune.
The Village Vets of one commune
gather together in the morning (4 days
per week in the first cycle) for training.

The training is given in modules. After
each module (average of about 4-6
days) there is a two week period for
monitoring the Village Vets by the
trainers. They visit each Village Vet
individually and repeat parts of the les-
sons that are not well understood or
join the Village Vet to see a sick ani-
mal.

In the first cycle there are six modules,
totalling 20 weeks. This first cycle is
focussing on veterinary skills. A Vil-
lage Vet is required to know: (I) how
to ask questions to the farmer; (2) how
to examine a sick animal (we stick to
the following parameters: temperature,
respiration, pulse, mucosal membranes,
lymph-nodules and coat and hair; (3)
how to link the possible disease causes
to a case (4) how to treat an animal cor-
rectly and (5) how to advise the farmer
to take care of the animal and to take
measurements in order to prevent future
sickness.

After the initial cycle, the trainers con-
tinue to provide lessons to the Village
Vets, but less frequently (2 days per
week) and more on animal husbandry,
like feeding, nutrition and housing and
with extra emphasis on preventive
measures but also on duck raising.

The Village Vet receives an initial kit
of medicines and materials at the start.
By treating animals, he or she will ge-
nerate money to buy new medicines or
materials. For each case, the Village
Vet fills out a record form with his or
her findings, adding the most likely
disease cause (choice of six): parasites,
microbes, nutritional deficiency, poi-
son, trauma and stress and noting the
advice given to the farmer. Any treat-
ment involving the provision of antibi-
otics requires the Village Vet to return
to the farmer for three subsequent days
and note the body temperature of the
animal.

By means of such report forms, it is
easy to monitor the Village Vets. Al-
though I could not read Khmer script, I
only understand and speak the lan-
guage, I was able to monitor Village
Vets myself through these forms, with-
out the need for an interpreter. These
were my best days, jumping on a mo-
torbike and wandering off to see one of

the Village Vets to discuss with him or
her the problems encountered and to go
and see a problem case. Of course, my
Khmer was not perfect but after a while
a Village Vet would start interpreting
between me and the farmer. Sometimes
I needed just three of four words while
for the Village Vet it could take 15 mi-
nutes to explain the case to the farmer.

The second part of the article will be
published in one of the next issues of
EQUATOR

Thailand is situated in the heart of Southeast Asia which has rapidly developed in
both science and technology in the recent decade. Thailand itself covers
appoximately 510,000 square kilometers, which is almost 15 times as large as the
Netherlands. It extends about 1,600 kilometers from the north to the south and 800
kilometers from the east to the west, and has a coastline of more than 2,000
kilometers. Bangkok has been established as the capital city more than 200 years
ago, and therefore it is the most important city which dominates the administrative,
financial, industrial and commercial activities of the country.
The climate is tropical with long hours of simshine and high humidity. There are
three seasons: hot, rainy and cool season. Its population was appoximately 60
million in 1996, of which 95 percent is Buddhist. However, there is total religious
freedom and all major religions can be foimd in practice. The official national
language is Thai; principal other languages are Chinese and Malay. English is a
compulsoiy subject in the school. It is widely understood, particularly in Bangkok
and other major provinces.

improved and are widely exported all
over the world.

Regarding livestock production,
Thailand is a major exporter of chilled
or frozen chicken. The country exports
an amazing variety of chilled, frozen
and canned seafood as well. Moreover,
a plentiful of tropical fruits are
intensively grown all over Thailand and
the export of these fruits increases day
by day. The coimtry is now the world\'s
largest exporter of canned tima, canned

Thailand is an agricultural country.
Approximately 60% of its population is
working in the agricultural sector.
During the last decade Thailand has
strongly developed its economy and has
stepped forward to become a new agro-
industrial coimtry with an approximate •
national economic growth rate of 8%
per year, and the economy keeps
growing at this rate until now. The
agricultural products have greatly

Veterinaiy education in Thailand was
established more than 60 years ago.
The first school was founded at the
University of Medical Sciences (now
Mahidol University). Nowadays, 4
government funded veterinary faculties
and 1 private faculty are established at
universities in the important parts of
the country. These include
Chulalongkom University, Kasetsart
University, Khon Kaen University,
Mahanakhon University and the new
faculty at Chiangmai University. The
faculties offer professional veterinaiy
education to students who selected this
disciplin and subsequently met the
requirements of the national entrance
examination, administered by the
Ministry of University Affairs. The
number of students per year is different
at each university and ranges from 50-
150. The veterinary curriculum lasts six
years, and includes courses in pre-
veterinary basic science, pre-clinical
and clinical veterinary science. For a
full Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
(D.V.M.) degree, a minimal GPA of
2.00 and an accumulative field practice
are required.

Veterinary students study 1 year pre-
veterinary science, 2 years pre-clinical
veterinary science and 3 years clinical
veterinary science. Basically, they have
to study all compulsory subjects and
have to pass the minimal requirements

In the frame of the Utrecht-
Thailand link programme
Prof. Dr. G.C. van der Weij-
den visited his colleague
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chainarong
Lohachit (Photo: Collection
Rukkwamsuk)

for each subject in order to advance to a
higher year. In the last year of their
study. Thai veterinary students have to
participate in clinical practice in both
the large animal and small animal
hospital of their faculty. All students
must follow the same study path for
their professional degree without any
differences. The students are required
to study all important animals. After
their graduation the veterinarians are
expected to become a general
practitioner, therefore the veterinary
curriculum in Thailand does not include
specialization subjects. The graduated
students are able to participate in all
kind of veterinary tasks. In the near
future, when the primary labour market
for veterinarians will be satiu^ated,
specialization in a particular area will
be necessary. However, already some
species specific subjects are offered to
the last year students, like equine
internal medicine and aquatic medicine.

Apart from the faculties of veterinary
medicine, the Department of Livestock
Development had set up the Veterinary
Training School in order to deliver
well-trained students who were
predominantly trained to perform
vaccination and artificial insemination
tasks in livestock all arotmd Thailand.
For several reasons, this school was
reorganized in 1994. Because at that
moment Kasetsart University was in
charge of the reorganization of this
school, the Veterinary Technical School
was established at Kasetsart University.
This school collaborates with the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of
Kasetsart University and the
Department of Livestock of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Co-
operatives, This particular school now
educates students to become skillful in
all aspects of veterinary laboratory
work.

An answer to this question is quite
simple, one may think. Students
certainly study, but beside that, what do
they do? The veterinary students
themselves participate in
extracurricular activities which are
generally not mandatory for them,
except for an accimiulative field
practice which is required to obtain the
professional degree. Extracurricular
activities are mainly organized by the
veterinary student club and the
committee of the faculty. Among these
activities are quot;the Veterinary Services
and Livestock Extension Programmequot;,
quot;the Rabies Control and Eradication
Programmequot; and quot;the Student Joiunal
Clubquot;. The aim of the veterinary
services and livestock extension
programme is to train veterinary
students in the particular field practice
in a rural area. The participating
students will be engaged in a rural
village for a couple of weeks in order to
learn how to work as a field
veterinarian in a rural situation. They
are trained to do vaccinations (this task
will be done following the national
routine programme). They are also
trained to negotiate with the villagers,
of which most are less educated, to
make them understand and to give them
the knowledge and know-how on topics
concerning their livestock. The most
crucial aspect the students will learn
from this activity is to work together.
Furthermore they will experience how
to manage an activity by themselves.

The rabies control and eradication
programme is designed to administer
rabies vaccination to animals, mainly
dogs and cats, and to pass on
knowledge on this fatal disease to the
people by using different media, such
as films, posters, brochures, and by
giving presentations.

The veterinary student journal club
aims at publishing the monthly
veterinary news magazine. This
magazine contains recent information
on livestock and companion animals,
which is reviewed or reported by field
veterinarians, faculty staff and even by
veterinary students.

Thailand rapidly develops in eveiy
segment, certainly including the
veterinary field. Most of the time
veterinary students are offered jobs
before their graduation. In general, the
graduates can choose to work for the
government or in the private sector.
Formerly, the government sector played
an important role in the veterinary
profession because the agricultural
business was not so intensively
developed yet. This situation has
gradually changed, and the private
sector is now in search of much more
veterinary students than before.
Two main government institutions that
need a large number of veterinarians
are the universities under the Ministry
of University Affairs, and the
Department of Livestock Development
under the Ministry of Agriculture and
Co-operatives. However, some
veterinarians obtain a job in the
Ministry of Defence as a veterinarian
for military dogs and horses and some
carry out their veterinary work in the
zoo.

In the university, the main tasks of the
veterinarians are undoubtedly teaching,
research and also providing veterinary
services, either in the university animal
hospital or in the field. In contrast, the
Department of Livestock Development
is responsible for all livestock, and that,
brings a diversity of veterinary work in
which the veterinarians can take part.

In the private sector, the veterinarian
can be employed by companies
involved in all kinds of animal
production, either as a farm animal
veterinary consultant or as a technical
sales representative. They can also be
hired to work in a private veterinary
clinic, mainly in a small animal clinic.

Buffaloes, beef and dairy cattle, pigs
and poultry, are the predominant farm
animals in Thailand. Unlike pig and
chicken that are mostly raised on a
large farm, which is owned or managed
by a private company, buffaloes and
beef or dairy cattle are raised by small
scale farmers. However, for all these
animals, the veterinarians of the
Department of Livestock Development
have to take full responsibility for the
maximisation of the production and the
health of the animals, to achieve the
highest profit for the owners.

The main interest of private
practitioners is in small animals, mainly
dogs and cats. There are quite a lot of
private clinics around Thailand,
particularly in the big cities. Horses are
bred by a limited group of people. The
number of horses is relatively high in
the military sector. Every year a small
number of horse patients is treated in

the university hospital. Horse riding is
becoming increasingly popular among
Thai people. Therefore it is to be hoped
that horses in general will become more
popular, which would be an
opportunity for equine veterinarians.

Livestock and diseases
Dairy herds are mainly located in some
provinces of the country such as
Chiangmai in the north and Ratchburi
and Saraburi in the center. Beef cattle
and buffaloes are found in every part of
the country, but a large number of
buffaloes is kept in the Northeast. Pigs
are produced substantially in the central
part but they are also raised in the north
and northeast. Poultry industry can be
found in all parts, but predominantly in
the east and northeast.
Some important diseases in cattle that
must be controlled because of national
regulations are, for instance, foot and
mouth disease, hemorrhagic septicemia,
and anthrax. Vector-bome diseases,
such as babesiosis, anaplasmosis and
trypanosomiasis, can occasionally
affect the cattle.

Swine fever (hog cholera) and
pseudorabies (Aujesky\'s disease) are
the 2 major diseases that can
dramatically increase the losses in pig
production in Thailand. For the poultry
industry, new castle disease, fowl
cholera, infectious bursal disease and
duck plague are the most cmcial
diseases.

Since the government has explicitly
planned to be the leader of the agro-
industrial countries in Southeast Asia,
the gross budget has contributed
intensively to many urgent agricultural
projects. The veterinary profession.

which has been clearly proclaimed as a
scarce profession in Thailand, has been
substantially subsidized and promoted.
The present Faculties of Veterinary
Medicine have to accelerate the
production of sufficient graduate
veterinary students to cope with
veterinary tasks, that are increasing. As
a consequence, the Faculties are in an
emergency need of capable instructors,
and thereby at least 10 faculty staff
each year are being awarded with a
further higher education in a particular
veterinary field of interest in foreign
countries around the world, mostly in
the United States and in European
countries. It is to be hoped that within
the next decade after the return of the
scholars, the veterinary education will
be expansively improved by their
contributions. Their specialisation will
be considerably helpful for the
development of the livestock
production, which than can compete
with other countries on world level.

As a result of occasional exchange visits in the eighties and of a large fact finding
mission under the responsiblity of the Ministry of University Affairs of Thailand
in 1992 to various veterinary institutes in EU and USA, the Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine of Utrecht University was selected by the Ministry of University Affairs
of Thailand as partner institute for their 10 year support programme to upgrade
veterinary education in Thailand.

A Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of University Affairs of
Thailand and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University was signed
in 1993. This agreement, with a duration of 5 years, included scientific cooperation
between the Faculties of Veterinary Medicine at Kasetsart University, Chulalong-
kom University and Khon Kaen University of Thailand and the Utrecht Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine.

Under this agreement about 20 staff members of the Thai veterinary faculties
visited Utrecht to participate in short training courses (upto 3 months), MSc cour-
ses (18 months) and PhD training (4 years). The training of the Thai staff mem-
bers is supported by fellowships of the Thai government.

About 6 staff members of Utrecht visited Thialand to participate in Workshops
and Conferences. Three students from Utrecht participate in intemational veterina-
ry courses in Thailand.

Theera Rukkwamsuk is a staff member
of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
of the Kasetsart University. Presently

The Charles Louis Davis DVM Foundation
for the advancement of Veterinary and
Comparative Pathology, organizes the
Southern and Eastem Africa Pathology
Symposium, in Harare on 8-10 September,
1997. This symposium is organized in the
memory of Dr. Dolf Goedegebuure, a for-
mer staff member of the Faculty of Veteri-
nary Medicine of Utrecht, who was one of
the initiators of the symposium. Dr.
Goedegebuure died last year.
The North American Division and the Eu-
ropean Division of the Foundation in co-
sponsorship with the Faculty of Veterinaiy
Medicine of the University of Zimbabwe,
will present this Continuing Education Pro-
gramme in veterinary pathology from 8-10
September, 1997 at the Organizational
Training and Development Centre, St. Lu-
cia Park, Crichton Avenue, Harare, Zim-
babwe.

The role of pathology in veterinary services
(Prof M.J. Obwolo, Harare); Pathology of
diseases of poultry (Prof W.M. Reed,
Michigan); Neuropathology (Prof J. van
der Lugt, Pretoria); Pathology of diseases of
swine (Prof G.L. Stevenson, Purdue);
Wildlife pathology (Prof N.P.J. Kriek,
Pretoria); Selected wildlife conditions
(Prof N. Kock, Harare); Livestock patho-
logy (Prof M.J. Obwolo, Harare); Patho-
logy of diseases of cattle (Prof J.F.
Edwards, Texas); Skin diseases of livestock
in Africa (Prof O. Bwangamoi, Harare).

Staff members of veterinary institutes and
graduate students from Southern and East-
ern African countries are specifically in-
vited to attend this symposium. They do not
have to pay registration fees.
Registration fees for members from outside
the Southern and Eastem African region
are for members US$ 180; non members
have to add $75 for 1997 membership.
Deadline for application is 1 August, 1997.
Registration forms can be obtained from:
Dr. Samuel Thompson, National Program-
mes Director, G.L. Davis DVM Founda-
tion, 6245 Formoor Lane, Gumee, Illinois
60031, USA (tel.: 1.847.367.4359). Ac-
commodation has to be reserved by the par-
ticipants directly at the Organizational
Training and Development Centre, St. Lu-
cia Park, Crichton Avenue, Harare, Zim-
babwe (tel. 263.4.30109, telefax: 263.-
4.301989). Single and double rooms are
available at a daily rate per person of US$
50 for dinner, bed and breakfast.

The section RECENT PUBLICATIONS is included in the English 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 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.

Uilenberg, G. (1996). Lutte intégrée contre les parasitoses animales tropical. Revue d\'Elevage et ^ Médicine Vétérinaire des Pays
Tropicaux 49: 124-129.

Uilenberg, G. ( 1996). Integrated control of tropical animal parasitosis. Tropical Animal Health and Production 28: 257-265.
ANIMAL PRODUCTION

Baars, R.M.T., Jong, R. de and Zwart, D. (1996). Cost and returns of the crop-cattle system in the Western Province of Zambia. Revue
d\'Elevage et de Médicine Vétérinaire des Pays Tropicaux 49: 243-250.

Buijtels, J.A.A.M., Huime, R.B.M., Dijkhuizen, A.A. and Noordhuizen, J.P.T.M. (1996). Basic framework for the economic evaluation of
animal health control programmes. Revue scientific et technique d\'Office Intemational des Epizooties 15: 775-795.

Klink, E.G.M. van, Corten, J.J.F.M. and Kalokoni, D.M. (1996). Herd monitoring in traditional cattle husbandry as a tool for productivity
reseai\'ch and livestock development. Tropical Animal Health and Production 28: 273-279.

Schaik, G. van, Peny, B.D., Mukhebi, A.W., Gitau, G.K. and Dijkhuizen, A.A. (1996). An economic study of smallholder daiiy farms in
Murang\'a District Kenya. Preventive Veterinarv Medicine 29: 21-36.

Schilhorn van Veen, T.W. and Haan, C. de (1995). Trends in the organization and financing of livestock and animal health services.
Preventive Veterinaiy Medicine 25: 225-240.

Moyo, D.Z., Bwangamoi, O., Hendrikx W.M.L. and Eysker, M. (1996). The epidemiology of gastrointestinal nematode infections in
communal catUe and commercial beef cattle on the highveld of Zimbabwe. Veterinary Parasitology 67: 105-120.

Schallig, H.D.F.H., Moyo, D.Z., Hendrikx W.M.L. and Eysker, M. (1996). Bovine humoral immuno responses to Haemonchus placet
excretory secretoiy antigens. Veterinary Parasitology 65: 289-296.

Camus, E., House, J.A., Uilenberg, G. (Eds) (1996). Vector-bome pathogens: Intemational trade and tropical animal diseases. STVM-95,
San José, Costa Rica. Annals ^ the New York Academy of Sciences vol. 791 pp. 486.

Papadopoulos, B., Perié, N.M. and Uilenberg, G. (1996). piroplasms of domestic animals in the Macedonia region of Greece. I.
Serological cross reactions. Veterinary Parasitology 63: 41-56.

Vliet, A.HM. van, Zeijst, B.A.M. van der, Camus, E., Mahan, S.M., Martinez, D. and Jongejan, F. (1996). Recombinant expression and
use in serology of a specific fi-agment from Cowdria ruminantium MAPI protein. Annals of Üie New York Academy of Sciences
791: 35-45.

Dwinger, R.H. (1997). The use of an immunoassay method to improve the diagnosis of African tiypanosomosis and its application
to monitor disease control programmes: A summary. In: Application cf m immunoassay method to improve the diagnosis and
control of African Trypanosomosis. Proceedings of a Workshop on epidemiological tools for monitoring trypanosomosis and
tsetse control programmes. Addis Ababa, 17-28 Apnl, 1995, IAEA Tecdoc-925, Vienna, pp. 7-10.

Dwinger, R.H., Rebeski, D. and Winger, D. (1997). Improvements on an ELISA to detect trypanosomal antigens and its use as a
monitoring tool in tsetse and tiypanosomosis control programmes. In: Application of m immunoassay method to improve the
diagnosis and control of African Trypanosomosis. Proceedings of a Workshop on epidemiological tools for monitoring
trypanosomosis and tsetse control progi-ammes. Addis Ababa, 17-28 April, 1995, IAEA Tecdoc-925, Vienna, pp. 11-14.

XVni Symposium of the Scandinavian Society
for Parasitology, with a special mini-sympo-
sium on Human and Veterinary Tropical
Parasitology. Information: Secretariat of Sym-
posium Bornholm, Danish Bilharziasis Labo-
ratory, Jaegersborg Allé ID, DK-2929
Charlottenlund (Tel.: 45.39.626168; telefax;
45.39.626121).

3\'\'\'\' Course on: Artificial insemination in pigs.
Subjects: Collection of semen; Evaluation and
processing of semen in the laboratory; Insemi-
nation and sow production control; Organiza-
tion of an AI station and Selection of breeding
stock. Fees including board and lodging: Dfl.
5,000. Information: IPC Livestock Barneveld
College, Dep. of International Studies and
Cooperation Programmes, P.O. Box 64,3770
AB Barneveld (Tel.: 31.342.414881, telefax:
31.342.-492813, e-mail: io(g
ipcdier.hacom.nl).

lôquot;quot; International Conference of the World
Association for Advancement of Veterinary
Parasitology (WAAVP). Organized by: Parasi-
tological Society for the Advancement of
Southern Africa. Information: 16quot;^ WAAVP
Conference, Event Dynamics, P.O. Box 567,
Stathavcn, 2031, South Africa (Tel.: 27.11 .-
8836155, telefax: 27.11.8839643).

World Congress on Food Hygiene and 12quot;*
International symposium of the World Asso-
ciation of Veterinary Food Hygienists. Con-
gress theme; Healthy animals, healthy food,
healthy consumers. Information scientific pro-
gramme: Prof Dr. J.G. van Logtestijn, Drie-
klinken 63, NL-3972 EC Driebergen. Infor-
mation and registration: Royal Netherlands
Veterinary Association, Mrs. D. Raasing, P.O.
Box 14031, NL-3508 SB Utrecht (Telephone:
31.30.2510111, telefax: 31.302511787, e-
mail: knmvd (^pobox.ruu.nl).

International Theriological Congress
(7ITC) and Symposium on \'Veterinarians in
conservation biology\'. Organized by: World
Association of Wildlife Veterinarians. For in-
fonnation about and contributions to the sym-
posium contact: Dr. A.W. English, University
of Sidney, Department of Animal Health, Pri-
vate Mailbag 3, Camden, NSW 2579, Austra-
lia (Telefax: 61.46.552931).

8-10 September, 1997
Southern and Eastern Africa Veterinary Pa-
thology Symposium. Organized by: Charies
Louis Davis DVM Foundation in cosponsor-
ship with the Faculty of Veterinary Science of
the University of Zimbabwe. Location: The
Organisational Training and Development
Centre, St Lucia Park, Crichton Avenue, Ha-
rare. Registration closing 1 August, 1997. In-
formation and Registration: C.L. Davis DVM
Foundation, Dr. Samuel Thompson, National
Programmes Director, 6245 Formoor Lane,
Gurnee, Illinois 60031, USA. (Tel.:
1.847.3674359). For more information see
elswhere in this EQUATOR.

Intemational Conference on Ethno-veterinary
Medicine: Alternatives for livestock develop-
ment. Organized by: BIAF Research Develop-
ment Foundation. Call for papers, posters etc.
is open with a deadline of 30 July, 1997. Last
date for registration: 30 September, 1997. In-
formation and registration: Dr. D.V. Rangne-
kar, BIAF Research Development Foundation,
P.O.B. 2030, Mafatla Industries Compound,
Asarwa, Ahmedabad - 380016, India (Telefax:
91.79.2123045, e-mail: biafahm@
lwahm.nandanet.com).

Squot;quot; International symposium: Tropical Animal
Health and Production. Theme: \'Aquaculture
and disease control\'. Organized by the Com-
mittee for the Advancement of Tropical
veterinary Science (CATS) and the Office for
Intemational Cooperation of the Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University.
Registration before 15 November, 1997 to
Office for Intemational Cooperation, Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine. P.O. Box 80.163,
3508 TD Utrecht (Telefax: 31.30.2531815,
e-mail bic(^bic.dgk.ruu.nl).

January, 1998 - December, 1999
Master of Science Training Course in \'Tropi-
cal Veterinary Epidemiology\' for veterinarians
from developing countries. Organized by:
veterinary faculties of the Free University of
Berlin and Addis Ababa University. Pro-
gramme includes one year of course work,
exams and research participation in Beriin and
one year of applied research, short training
courses and workshops in Addis Abeba. Sub-
ject: modern concepts in population medicine
for the improvement of the health status of
animal populations. Tuition fees: USS equi-
valent of DM 29,200.

Deadline for application for DAAD scholar-
ships 31 August, 1997. Closing date for regis-
tration: 30 September, 1997. Information and
registration: The Coordinator, Freie Universität
Berlin, Postgraduate Studies in Tropical
Veterinary Medicine, Luisenstrasse 56 D-
10117 Berlin

(Telephone: 49.30.20936063, telefax:
49.30.209 36349, e-mail: TropVet(@
city.vetmed.fu-berlin.de,
http:\\\\wwwl .vetmed.fu-berlin.de).

12 January - 10 July, 1998
11*\'Intemational Course on Dairy Husbandry
and Milk Processing. Programme: Dairy deve-
lopment, Animal husbandry, Milk processing,
Teaching and extension, Dairy farm manage-
ment, Small-scale milk processing. Closing
date: 1 October 1997. Information and appli-
cation: IPC Livestock, Dairy Training Centre
Friesland, P.O. Box 85, 9062 ZJ Oenkerk
(Tel.: 31.582561562, telefax: 31-
.582561628, e-mail: ipcdiero@pi.net).

22 -27 February, 1998
Second Pan Commonwealth Veterinary Con-
ference on \'Animal health and production in
rural areas. The essential role of women at all
levels\'. Topics: Animal Production (cattle, buf-
falo, sheep, goats, pigs, equines, camels, ele-
phants, ostriches, transport and draft animals,
embryo transfer); Animal Health (animal
health of domestic and companion animals,
emerging and reemerging diseases, animal
nutrition, vaccine production) and Veterinary
Education (reciprocity in Commonwealth,
assessment, extension training, continuing
education and distance learning). Information:
Organizing Secretary, 123, 7th \'B\' Main Road,
IV Block (West), Jayanagar, Bangalore-
560011 (Tel.: 91.80646857, telefax:
91,806635210, e-mail: rahman.cva@
sm4.sprintrpg.ems.vsnl.net.in).

14- 18 September, 1998
IX Intemational Conference of the Association
of Institutions of Tropical Veterinary Medicine
(AITVM). Organized by: Faculty of Veterinary
Science, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box
MP 167, Harare. Location: International Con-
ference Centre, Harare.

J.H.A. de Gooijer
R.W. Pahng DVM PhD
(editor-in-chief)
W.D. Vink MVM
P.R. van Weeren DVM PhD

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Office for Intemational
Cooperation
P.O. Box 80.163
3508 TD UTRECHT

The Netherlands
Tel.: 31.30.2532116
Fax: 31.30.2531815
E-mail: bic@bic.dgk.mu.nl

Subscription is free of charge.
For changes in address and termi-
nation of subscription
please retum the corrected label to
the editorial office.

In 1973 the Association of Institutes of
Tropical Veterinary Medicine
(AITVM) was established on the initia-
tive of Prof Robertson of the Center of
Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM)
in Edinbiuquot;gh (UK). It was an associa-
tion of institutes located in Europe,
Australia and the USA which had
strong links with institutes in develop-
ing coimtries. The last years the institu-
tions in Australia and USA were no
longer actively participating, and insti-
tutes from Africa and Asia became
members or associated members.
The main activity of AITVM is the or-
ganization of a conference every 3
years on \'Livestock Production and
Diseases in the Tropics\'. In the last 25
years the AITVM has been the organ-
iser of 8 conferences. These confer-
ences bring together 200-300 partici-
pants from on average 40-50 countries.
These include veterinarians, animal sci-
entists and representatives of livestock
ministries and research and develop-
ment organizations

One of the founding members of
AITVM in 1973 was Prof Dr. Dik
Zwart of the Fa-culty of Veterinary
Medicine of Utrecht University. After
his retirement in 1995, his place on the
Standing Committee was allocated to
Dr. Robert W. Paling, the Head
of the Office for Intemational Coopera-
tion of the Utrecht Faculty of Veteri-
nary Medicine and editor-in-chief of
EQUATOR.

During the Standing Committee
meeting in May at CIRAD/-EMVT in
Montpellier (France) it was decided
that AITVM membership is open to all
Universities and Institutions which are
active in the field of tropical animal
health and production. Exchange of
information between AITVM and
member institutes is one of the activi-
ties.

From now on you will be able to read
more about AITVM in EQUATOR as
in each issue one page will be allocated
to news from the association. Apart
from making one page available to
AITVM, about 50 faculties and insti-
tutes were added to the mailing list of
EQUATOR. Bringing the total number
of subscriptions to almost 1300. These
institutions were selected from the list
of participants of the last AITVM Con-
ference in Berlin. In order to reach a
wider readership, EQUATOR is ad-
dressed to the Deans or Directors of the
respective institutions. Of course we
count on their interest and readiness to
bring EQUATOR, and \'FROM THE
AITVM\' to the attention of their staff
members.

An intemational symposium on diagnosis and control of livestock diseases using
nuclear and related techniques was held at the Intemational Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) in Vienna, Austria from 7-11 April 1997. A total of 33 invited speakers
presented lectures on a wide variety of topics dealing mostly with novel diagnostic
techniques and disease control methods. The emphasis was on the expected changes
in the field of animal health as we approach the next century. A total of 114
participants from 49 countries were able to attend the symposium. A large number of
the part:icipants (60) originated from developing countries. Their participation was
fmancially supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and IAEA. A
total of 37 scientific posters with details of applied research was presented by the
participants.

The opening lecture by M. Jeggo and J.
Crowther detailed the activities of the
Animal Production and Health (APH)
Sub-programme of FAO/IAEA, which
organized the symposium. At present the
Section devotes 40% of its resources to
animal production topics, 50% to animal
health and 8% to veterinary drug resi-
dues with the initiation of an external
quality assurance programme dealing
with each of the subjects. During the past
ten years enzyme-linked immimosorbent
assays (ELISA) have been introduced by
the APH Section to many veterinaiy
laboratories in developing countries
initially for disease diagnosis, and lately
also for monitoring disease control
programmes such as the rinderpest eradi-
cation campaign in Africa. In the next
few years global approaches to disease

The UN buildings in Vienna
Head Quarter of the Intema-
tional Atomic Energy Agency
(Photo: Dwinger)

control will become more prominent and
an extemal quality assurance programme
for individual tests and laboratories will
become essential as an initial step for
laboratory accreditation and promoting
intemational trade.

R. Jacobson of Comell University
(USA) outlined the historical aspects of
ELISA technology and the most frequent
mistakes made when performing the test.
He emphasized the importance of stan-
dardization and the use of standard pro-
tocols and manuals as provided with
FAO/IAEA ELISA kits. He foresaw the
continued use of ELISA, but in a faster,
cheaper and easier format, possibly using
competitive assays more frequently and
membranes replacing plates.
J. Anderson of Pirbright Laboratories
(UK) outlined the history, clinical signs
and immimology of rinderpest and em-
phasized the novel approach by the
IAEA of technology transfer consisting
of multinational training courses, provi-
sion of standardised kits, in-situ training,
continuous technical backstopping, rapid
incorporation of improvements and an-
nual coordination meetings. In addition
to the antibody- and antigen-detection
ELISA distributed by the APH Sub-
programme, he described a pen-side test,
which rapidly detects antigen in eye
swabs. This will become important for
disease surveillance once vaccination
against rinderpest has ceased (as is hap-
pening in West Africa).
K. Nielsen of Agriculture Canada dis-
cussed the mistakes and successes made
over the years in developing an ELISA
for bmcellosis. A competitive ELISA has
recently been developed, which can dis-
tinguish vaccinated from non-vaccinated
animals.

A. Luckins of the CTVM in Edinburgh
(UK) talked about Trypanosoma evansi
infections in cattle and buffaloes in
Southeast Asia. Although the disease is

not a serious problem, it does cause an
important decrease in productivity and
draught power. The performance of an
antibody- and antigen-detection ELISA
was reported. The diagnostic sensitivity
of the test varied between animals and at
different times during infection. How-
ever, such a far from perfect ELISA is
still useful for gathering epidemiological
information, monitoring vector control
programmes and assessing the effective-
ness of chemotherapy.
N , Ferris of Pirbright explained the epi-
demiology and diagnosis of foot-and-
mouth disease. At present a liquid-phase
blocking ELISA to detect antibodies and
an antigen-detection ELISA are avail-
able. An ELISA based on non-structural
proteins of the virus is under develop-
ment in order to be able to distinguish
vaccinated from infected and carrier from
non-carrier animals. With the very sensi-
tive polymerase chain reaction (PGR)
one can detect evidence of virus in vacci-
nated animals. R Jackman of Weybridge
(UK) presented the various forms of
homogeneous assays, which have the
advantage that no washing steps are
involved.

I. Tothill of Cranfield University (UK)
explained the multiple use of biosensors.
These can measure a range of biological
compounds (cells, enzymes, nucleic
acids, antibodies, etc.) in different ways
(optical, electrochemical, calorimetric,
piezo-electric) and are used in medical
diagnostics, environmental monitoring
and food analysis among others. Practi-
cal applications are for example measur-
ing antibiotic residues in milk, glucose
levels in blood and food-borne patho-
gens.

J. Reddington, a representative from an
American business company, listed the
advantages of pen-side diagnostic meth-
ods. Two review papers were given, one
on the production of monoclonal anti-
bodies and another one on the use of
molecular diagnostic techniques. Re-
searchers from the National Veterinary
histitute in Sweden (K. Johansson and S.
Belak) presented the use of PGR based
diagnostic systems for the detection of
Mycoplasma mycoides cluster (caus-
ing contagious bovine pleuropneumonia
and contagious caprine pleuropnemonia)
and of viral infections causing pneumo-
nia in cattle.

P. Majiwa of the Intemational Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI, Nairobi,
Kenya), highlighted that species specific
primers have been developed for use in
the PGR to detect successfully trypano-
somes in tsetse flies and bovine blood.
Using this novel and sensitive technique
mixed infections of T. brucei, T. vivax
and T. congolense were found to be
much more common than encountered
previously using conventional diagnostic
techniques.

N. Knowles of Pirbright discussed the
molecular techniques used to diagnose
FMD and to elucidate its epidemiology
by defining topotypes, producing a ge-
nome map of the virus and study the
evolution of the vims over the years. T.
Barrett from the same institute told the
audience an interesting story about recent

United Nations buildings in
Vienna where the IAEA Haed
Quater is located (Photo:
Dwinger)

outbreaks of morbillivimses in cattle
(causing rinderpest) and dolphins. Con-
ventional and recombinant vaccines are
available against rinderpest and are being
used as part of the strategy to eradicate
the disease.

G. Uilenberg, the former director of
research of lEMVT (France) and former
Professor in Tropical Veterinary Medi-
cine at Utrecht University (die Nether-
lands), gave a review of tick-bome dis-
eases control methods. The occurrence of
acaricide resistance and the lack of incen-
tive for the industry to develop new
acaricides has emphasized the necessity
of integrated sustainable confrol invol-
ving chemical tick control, immunologi-
cal control (i.e. the infection and treat-
ment method), use of genetic resistance
of indigenous breeds, dmg treatment and
sanitary control and surveillance.
R. Sinden of Imperial College (UK)
reviewed vaccine technology in general
and gave an example of the use of trans-
genic insects as a vehicle of vaccine
delivery.

G. Viljoen of the Onderstepoort Veteri-
nary Institute (South Africa) talked about
the regulation of gene expression in
mammahan cells and M. Thmsfield of
the University of Edinburgh explained
the principles of veterinary epidemio-
logy. He emphasized the importance of
providing appropriate training to scien-
tists from developing countries, a point
which was later expanded by M. Coetzer,
who gave examples of the many training
possibihties available from the Depart-
ment of Veterinary Tropical Diseases,
University of Pretoria, South Africa.

J. Kramps of ID-DLO in Lelystad (the
Netheriands) described the details of an
extemal quality control programme run-
ning in veterinaiy diagnostic laboratories
in the Netheriands since 1992. B. van der
Eerden of FAO/IAEA on her part de-
scribed the successful management of a
similar programme for the FAO/IAEA
Subprogramme in animal health involv-
ing rinderpest, foot and mouth disease.

brucellosis and trypanosomosis in devel-
oping countries. M. Jeggo of the APH
Subprogramme explained the present
status of the Pan African Rinderpest
Campaign (PARC), the establishment of
disease surveillance systems in Africa
and the two funding systems by which
the IAEA can assist developing coun-
tries. The mechanisms of assistance
provided to scientists from developing
countries by the Intemational Foundation
for Science in Sweden were explained by

C.nbsp;Arosenius. J. Hilton of the Telos
group based in the United Kingdom
showed examples of teaching material on
various important veterinary diseases
available on CD-ROM.

T. Ndegwa (FAO/IAEA) explained the
establishment of a geographical informa-
tion system (GIS) facility at the IAEA
and its application for depicting the
distribution of theileriosis, trypano-so-
mosis, rinderpest and changes in land use
pattems.

D.nbsp;Rogers of Oxford University (UK) to
predict the distribution of tsetse flies in
Africa using satellite imagery. His co-
worker, T. Robinson, showed the practi-
cal applications of GIS in relation to
tsetse and trypanosomosis control in
southem Africa. P. Mellor of Pirbright
gave an interesting talk on the impact of
climatic change on vector-bome diseases.
It was shown that higher ambient tem-
peratures can promote disease transmis-
sion and survival of the vector of African
horse sickness, Culicoides imicola, and
thus transform the southwestern part of
Europe into a potential enzootic area of
the vims.

The systems\' approach
A. Dijkhuizen of the Agricultural Uni-
versity Wageningen (the Netherlands)
discussed the various modelling tech-
niques used in animal health economics.
He stressed the importance of cost/bene-
fit analysis for choosing the most appro-
priate control strategy to contain highly
contagious diseases such as a potential
foot and mouth disease outbreak in the
Netherlands. D. Zwart, former Professor
in Tropical Veterinary Medicine at

Utrecht University, showed the mistakes
made in Dutch agriculture and indicated
how to address sustainability issues in
developing countries properly.
S. Edwards explained the regulatory role
of the Office Intemational des Epizooties
(OIE, Paris, France) in setting standards
in trade in animals and animal products.

The impact of the above mentioned pre-
sentations and the informal discussions
were assessed and summarized by P.
Roeder of FAO (Rome, Italy). The sym-
posium was clearly a great success and
highlighted new technological innova-
tions that can assist disease control and
eradication in livestock in the next cen-
tury.

(Availability of the proceedings of this
symposium will be announced in EQUA-
TOR, ed.)

The Association of Institutions of Tro-
pical Veterinary Medicine (AITVM)
was established in 1973 and is pres-
ently composed of eleven institutions
from Europe, Africa and Asia. The
activities of the Association are organ-
ised by a Standing Committee consist-
ing of representatives of the member
institutions. Membership of AITVM is
open to all Universities or Institutions
which are active in the field of tropical
animal health and production.

To improve human health and quality
of life by means of increased food pro-
duction in tropical regions through en-
hancement of research, training and
education in veterinary medicine and
livestock production within the frame-
work of sustainable development.

-nbsp;to promote and co-ordinate research
and training in animal health and
production in the tropics

-nbsp;to inform policy m^ers of current
and future strategies in animal
health and production research for
sustainable rural development

-nbsp;to organise intemational conferen-
ces at regular intervals on themes
conceming livestock in the tropics.

Amongst others, the association has
organised eight Intemational Confer-
ences on Tropical Animal Health and
Production in Scotland (Edinburgh,
1973), in West Germany (West Beriin,
1976), in Kenya (Nairobi, 1980), in
Florida, USA (Kissimmie, 1983X in
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, 1986), in the
Netheriands (Wageningen, 1989), in
Ivory Coast (Yamoussoukro, 1992) and
in Germany (Berlin, 1995).

The next AITVM-Conference will be
held in Harare (Zimbabwe) from 14th -
18th September 1998. The 1998 Con-
ference is focussed on: Animal health
and production in development with
particular reference to:

-nbsp;increasing efficiency of public and
private livestock health delivery sys-

Rural development, commimity partici-
pation and the environment will form
important aspects of the topics for dis-
cussions in plenary sessions as well as
in workshops.

It is anticipated that the Conference
will provide another effective forum for
scientists of tropical animal health and
production and key persons from devel-
oping and developed countries to link
together efforts for integrated ap-
proaches promoting animal health and
production in the context of develop-
ment. The Conference will offer the
opportunity for information on new
developments, on problem analysis,
identification of requirements for future
strategies and concepts for exchange of
experiences and proposals between re-
presentatives from developing coim-
tries, agencies for technical co-ope-
ration and scientists.

For the 9th Conference: Prof M. J.
Obwolo, Faculty of Veterinary Sci-
ence, University of Zimbabwe, P.O.
Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare,
Zimbabwe (Fax: 263.4.333683, e-
mail: vetscience@esanet.zw)
For the AITVM in general: Prof D.
Mehlitz, Secretary AITVM, Freie Uni-
versitaet Berlin, Tropical Veterinary
Medicine, Koenigsweg 67, 14163 Ber-
lin, Germany (Fax: 49.30.81082323,
e-mail:

L The world population is rapidly
increasing, so we have to produce
more animal products

Intemational conferences, FAO reviews
and textbooks on livestock development
often open with the statement that we
have to contribute to higher livestock
production in order to be able to feed the
growing population. Last year I was in
Berlin for the conference of the
Association of Institutions of Tropical
Veterinary Medicine on Livestock
Production and Diseases: Livestock
Production and Human Welfare. Three
out of the seven keynote papers started
with this problem of population grovsth
and the resulting need for more animal
products.

Animal protein is not the first necessity
of hfe. So, the protein gap is less relevant
if we want to provide food for the ever-
growing population, and if we consider
the 800 million people suffering from
hunger, animal protein is not relevant at
all! The world food problem is an energy
(carbohydrates) gap problem. The
consiunption of animal protein is very
much related to economic development.

1 regret that we, animal production
people, use the population growth as an
excuse to continue with what we are
doing. We should not justify the
relevance of livestock with false
arguments.

.2. Intensification of animal production
will improve the nutritional status of
the population

It is also a myth to claim that
intensification of animal production will
improve the nutritional status of the rural
population. If farming households invest
in their animals they will be very
reluctant to eat their own products,
except on special occasions or when they
cannot sell their produce.
For example, staff members of the
Animal Husbandry Faculty of the
Brawijaya University in Indonesia and I
once visited a farmer who had received
two HP cows via a government credit
scheme. He was the only dairy farmer
near a particular small town. He could
sell his milk at a good price to people
coming to his farm to collect milk. And,
of course, we wanted to give this farmer
some proper advice. I asked him \'what is
your biggest problem\' and he answered
\'that we sometimes have to drink our
own milk, there are days that nobody
comes to collect milk\'. And there we
were, this problem we could not solve.

It is often stated that livestock can play a fimdamental and catalytic role in rural
development of developing countries. However, only few livestock development
projects have succeeded in meeting their objectives. Livestock technologies have had
very little impact on production and productivity at farm level. To be able to
understand some of the reasons for this, we might have to reconsider some of the
concepts underlying hvestock development. In this address, I will emphasize some of
the changes in considering livestock development. For this purpose, 13 myths in
hvestock development are formulated. The past two years, seven PhD-theses on topics
related to hvestock in tropical production systems have been defended at Wageningen
Agricultural University. To discuss the myths some of the findings of these theses and
parts of our other research are combined with general impressions on tropical
livestock.

Another example is village egg
production units. When village farmers
change to commercial poultry keeping,
be it on a small-scale (100-500 birds),
they have to invest in, for instance,
building materials, day-old chickens,
feed, and drugs. So, they have to sell all
the eggs produced to recover their
investments. Maybe, on special
occasions they will use some eggs for
baking cakes.

Livestock provides more than only food;
for example, draught power, manure,
fibres. And a very important motive for
keeping livestock is the function of
capital asset.

In the sixties and seventies bi-
lateral and multilateral live-
stock projects usually included
Friesian cows (Photo: Paling)

keeping in South-Western Nigeria. Here
we worked together with agricultural
economists in a goat improvement pro-
gramme. The economists wondered why
farmers kept goats anyway, because the
financial returns from goats to labour
were far below the returns from cocoa or
even cassava. But the goats enable
farming households to meet unexpected
expenditures. How to value this? Again,
together with an economist, we
developed a concept to value the
insurance (the capital invested in the
flock is a guarantee of meeting future
requirements, for which an insurance
premium must be paid in situations
where an insurance market exists) and
financing (the selling of animals, if and
when required means that financing
through formal and informal agents can
be avoided, which implies a saving on
transaction costs) functions of livestock.
For goat keeping in Nigeria these
functions were 4 times more important
than the meat production function. Now,
the benefits from goats per unit of labour
were comparable to the benefits from
crops per unit of labour. In the second
example, on the role of cattle in mixed
farming systems in East Java, Indonesia,
we came to the same conclusion. Here
per unit of labour were comparable to the
benefits from crops per unit of labour. In
the second example, on the role of cattle
in mixed farming systems in East Java,
Indonesia, we came to the same conclu-
sion. Here you see the relative impor-
tance of the various fimctions of keeping
cattle in this marginal area in Indonesia:

The various goals can even be conflict-
ing. Selling an animal for urgent cash
needs (a new roof for the house, a house-
hold member hospitalized, a wedding,
etc.) may not coincide with the optimal
moment from a meat production or
breeding perspective.

Research, development, education and
training are almost exclusively focused
on biological production. The intermedi-
ate (manure, draught power) and intangi-
ble (finance and insurance) benefits, on
the other hand, are very much neglected,
while all these benefits support human
welfare. This is what motivates farmers
to care for their animals. This is what
should motivate us!

What we need is a broad perspective on
livestock keeping. The farmer has to
balance the sometimes conflicting goals
of the livestock sub-system within the
context of the farm system and the socio-
economic and ecological environments.
And it is very importanf to realize that

Figure 1: Balancing Uvestock systems
any intervention is bound to have reper-
cussions elsewhere. In contrast to crops,
the socio-economic environment has
relatively more impact on livestock than
the ecological environment (Figure 1).

3. Animals and technologies from
industrialized countries offer great
opportunities to increase animal pro-
duction in developing countries

All intemational platforms agree that it is
a myth to think that animals and technol-
ogies from industrialized countries can
contribute much to livestock keeping in
developing countries. In the sixties and
seventies bilateral and multilateral live-
stock projects usually included Friesian
cows or other exotic stock, AI, milk
recording and progeny testing, and/or
building up an infrastmcture with
slaughterhouses, feedmills and dairy
factories. The breeding programmes did
not fit in local small-scale farming condi-
tions and the infrastructures were over-
sized, overstaffed, over-equipped and
under-utilized. As a consequence, devel-
opment funds are no longer used for such
activities.

In national livestock development plans,
it is often claimed that local stock and
production systems have a low produc-
tivity and that introduction of \'improved\'
stock is considered. First, productivity
refers to Output over Input. Animals or
systems with hardly any inputs cannot be
described as showing a low productivity.
Second, are all benefits included? I think
that the arguments given so far underline
that tiiis statement is a myth. In the nine-
ties, in Eastern Europe and the former

Soviet republics exactly the same mis-
takes are made as we made in the sixties
and seventies in developing countries.

4.nbsp;Animals need favourable environ-
mental conditions to express their
genetic potential

As a result of the failtires of the tradi-
tional breeding activities in developing
countries, livestock development experts
often claim that environmental con-
straints should be removed first before
attention is paid to breeding because
\'only tmder favourable environmental
conditions can animals express their
genetic potential\'. It is a myth to think
that genetic potential is a single magic
upper limit of the performance of ani-
mals. There are many areas where the
environmental constraints cannot be
removed. We have to make use of the
between animal or breed variation to
match animals to environments. This
usually implies that we have to place
more value on the merits of local genetic
resources. A good example is the current
interest in trypanotolerant livestock in
tsetse-infested areas in Africa.

It is a myth to think that technical inno-
vations are the prime movers for higher
animal production levels. We have stud-
ied low external input livestock systems
in Nigeria, Bangladesh and Indonesia. A
general finding is that farmers are doing
the best they can given their limited
resources. This does not preclude that
technical competence varies among farm-
ers. Livestock systems are not static
either. They change in response to chan-
ges in the prime movers: land use (influ-
encing the feed resource base and the
functions of livestock) and the non-agri-
cultural sector (influencing the demands
and therefore the functions of livestock
and the availability of (cash) resources).

This year, one of oiuquot; former staff mem-
bers completed a PhD on dairy develop-
ment under a wide range of production
conditions. He concluded that for dairy
development producer-friendly policies

There is a growing concern
about soil degradation and soil
mining in certain livestock pro-
duction systems (Photo: Paling)

(price and investment support) are more
important than technology development.
Some of his other conclusions are that:

-nbsp;the high requirements as to investment
and labour in dairy farming and the low
financial returns limit the number of
cows kept per farm and favour small
units with sufficient family labour

-nbsp;(para)statal farms carmot supply
enough F, animals or purebreds without
external supply

-nbsp;the long-term sustainability of dairy
systems is questionable in both industri-
alized and developing countries.

Based on this extensive work on dairy
development we can conclude that it also
is a myth to believe that dairy develop-
ment can be left to a free market system
as preached by donor agencies. A free
market system will favour the strongest
commercial units and the economically
strongest regions or countries. There are
always winners and losers.

In many regions the grazing areas are
disappearing or have disappeared. Thus,
ruminants have to rely more on crop
residues and forage from road-sides and
other marginal lands. The adagium in
policy statements on ruminant feeding
strategies seems to be \'how to make
better use of the low quality feed re-
sources?\'. For decades much research has
been dedicated to supplementation
and/or chemical treatment of such low
quality feeds. However, at farm level
these technologies have hardly made any
impact.

Poor quality feeds cannot contribute to
higher meat and milk production. Physi-
cal production can only be increased
when we make less use of the poor qual-
ity feeds and increase the supply of
higher quality feeds (concentrates, legu-
minous tree leaves). When the intermedi-
ate products (manure, draught power)
and the intangible benefits are important
objectives of livestock keeping, then
more of the poorer feeds can be used.
Supplements (concentrates, legumes,
treatments) are too costly, too laboiuquot;-
intensive, not sufficiently available, or
better used as fertilizer or as feed for
monogastrics.

When we are going to promote dairying
we can only use the better quality feeds.
This could lead to marginalization of
other farmers.

There are thousands of publications on
trials with individual feeds. Waste of
time and money! In such trials these
feeds are isolated from other feed re-
sources and the actual production sys-
tems. The starting point in ruminant
feeding strategies should be an analysis
of the total feed resource base and the
objectives of the production system.

For decades animal scientists from all
over the world have been promoting dry
(poor) season feeding strategies, such as

supplementation. However, farmers have
never used our strong recommendations.
They prefer to feed their animals better
during the good seasons. The phenome-
non of compensatory growth has been
known for a long time but we never took
the step from physiological knowledge to
practical farming. The farmers do! For
example, ILCA (Intemational Livestock
Centre for Africa) introduced forage
banks to be used for supplementmg
animals in the dry seasons. Farmers,
however, used these forage banks in the
productive season to get more milk and
to get their cows pregnant.
This year one of our MSc alumni de-
fended his PhD thesis on prospects of
compensatory growth for sheep produc-
tion systems. He concluded that for Iran,
sheep production systems based on com-
pensatory growth strategies were more
productive in terms of money than inten-
sive systems.

A myth held, in particular, by many
NGOs (non-govemmental organizations)
is that there are many improvements
feasible for rural pig and poultry keep-
ing. Indeed, from a technical point of
view there are many possibilities of
increasing production in free-range or
semi-commercial pig and poultry keep-
ing. However, the inputs required and the
increase in production imply that the
farmers have to become more market-
oriented, and have to compete with other
small farmers and large-scale operators.
The social role of pigs in various areas,
although a very interesting function of
livestock, might preclude any extra in-
puts for the animals. In poultry, it is
relatively easy to establish small-scale
commercial units; however, the major
constraints are irregular supply of feeds
and marketing. One 250-chicken imit can
supply enough eggs for a village with
2000 people, provided these people have
no chickens themselves. A second unit
has to market their eggs already some-
where else.

I used to work in Samoa, in the Pacific.
One of the hvestock activities was estab-
hshing village layer units with 200 hens,
organised by women committees. We
started with two units and after three
years there were already 40 units. We
became a serious competitor for the few
large-scale commercial farms and for
ourselves. From a technical point of view
we were very successful, but the market
was glutted with eggs. And many of the
ladies went out of business again.
Is there a middle course feasible between
free-range systems, where animals have
to fend for themselves, and large-scale
commercial units?

Last January I attended a workshop on
possibilities of using educational mod-
ules of European universities for veteri-
nary or animal production curricula of
African Universities. Veterinarians in
this meeting claimed that we should start
with veterinary science modules, because
without good health care no production.
To me, this is a myth, with the notable
exception for vaccinations against some
highly infectious diseases in specific
areas.

A very important motive for
keeping livestock is the
function of capital asset
(Photo: Paling)

Let us again take trypanosomiasis as an
example. Should we start with expensive
veterinary control programmes in tsetse-
infested areas or should we propagate the
use of trypanotolerant animals? Why did
the Northern Australian dairy farmers
start with crossbreeding their Friesian or
Jersey cattle with Tick borne disease
resistant Sahiwals. Well, to reduce the
use of acaricides.

One of our Tanzanian MSc-students
compared production parameters for
areas where cattle dips did not work
properly and areas were dips were in full
operation. He found that, in the year he
did his research, the offtake rate (a bio-
logical measure of productivity) was
higher in the villages where dips were not
used. His fmal conclusion was that farm-
ing households in villages with properly
working dips were in a better fmancial
position. Thus, they had also less need of
selling stock and they could continue the
dips. In the other villages farmers had to
sell more animals because of urgent cash
needs. Animal production, in terms of
selling of animals, was not increased by
improved health care. This example also
shows that off take rate is not a proper
indicator for measuring the impact of
veterinary treatments in tropical live-
stock systems.

In Europe, there is an over-supply of
animal products and we are very much
concemed about the enviroimiental pol-
lution by hvestock and about the welfare
of animals in the factory-farming busi-
ness of poultry, pigs, or veal calves. In
livestock production systems in other
agro-ecological zones there is a growing
concem about soil degradation and soil
mining. Hence, the sustainability of our
livestock systems is very much under
discussion.

Research, extension, education and train-
ing should support the multiple objec-
tives of livestock that contribute to hu-
man welfare in general. More intensified
livestock production and production for
the market could be a means to reach this
goal, it should never be the goal itself \'
Researchers, extension workers, educa-
tors and trainers should also be more
concemed about the quality and rele-

vance of their work than about the sheer ,
number of publications, targeted farmers
or programme participants.

I realize that it is dangerous to remark
that it is a myth to believe that extension
plays a major role in increasing animal
production. The ideal symbiosis between
Research, Extension and Farmers (Figiu-e
2) can occur in high extemal input sys-
tems or when really new technologies are
introduced. Nevertheless, in the Nether-
lands, the government is cutting down on
extension service and I do not hear many
protests from researchers or farmers.

In the tropics, we can fmd a wide range
of production systems. The majority of
the farmers can be found in low extemal
input production environments. In such
farming systems. Research, Extension,
and Farmers can be found on their own
white clouds (Figure 3). Research and
Extension have hardly contributed any-
thing usefijl to these production systems.
We have produced interventions that
farmers find unprofitable, too risky, too
labour-intensive, or impossible to imple-
ment. Our fnst priority should not be to
change production systems, we should
first try to understand them. So, exten-
sion has to be re-oriented towards sup-
porting rather than transforming existing
systems. In modem extension language
the clouds should be knowledge systems
with two-way information avenues be-
tween them (Figure 4).

13. Research focused on production
levels of individual animals will pro-
vide solutions to the sustainability
problems we face

-nbsp;without running out of non-renewable
resoiu-ces (think of our soils, drinking
water, energy, biodiversity)

-nbsp;taking into consideration the needs and
possibilities of future generations.

The traditional research approaches,
clearly subdivided into their own disci-
plinary categories (animal breeding,
health, and nutrition, or animal produc-
tion, crop production, and farm manage-
ment) are not equipped to tackle the
sustainabihty problems we face.
The broad concept of sustainability calls

for a systems approach. This is not a new
science nor a new discipline. It is a dis-
tinctive way of looking at things. The
central idea is that one must understand
a system before one can influence it in a
predictable manner. The relevance of
interventions has to be assessed within
the context of the farming system.

Figure 4: Two-way information avenues
needed between Research, Extension and
Farmers

Lebanon near Beirut. New 1000 cow dairy
unit. Veterinarian required to help manage
and start-up. First cows on site in Decem-
ber. Vehicle and accommodation included.
Salary negotiable 20k plus estimated. Area
is near winter skiing and summer sailing.

The idea behind this talk was that it
should stimulate discussions on livestock
development. So, I have pointed more at
problems than at solutions. When we
conclude that livestock systems are com-
plex and dynamic and that they provide
more than only food by their versatile
roles in supporting human welfare, it is
already clear that there are no easy solu-
tions. The objectives in research, educa-
tion, extension, and training should be
set in relation to this broad perspective
on livestock keeping. Well, researchers.

Dr. fr. H.M.J. Udo
Dept. of Animal Production Systems
Wageningen Agricidtural University

(Address on the occasion of the \'Live-
stock Development Day\' of the Nether-
lands Centres for Training in Animal
Resources Management (N_CT_R),
Oenkerk, October 1996; Previously
published in the Livestock Newsletter of
N_CT_R, Vol. 7 nr. 2 of November,
1996).

In August 1995, the first FAO/IDF
Dairy Development Newsletter was
published. More than 500 copies were
distributed to ministries, institutions,
imiversities and professionals of the
dairy sector for development countries.
Due to budget and personnel reductions
it was impossible to print any issue in
1996. Reallocation of funds, however,
will now permit publication of two is-
sues per year for 1997 and 1998; the
first of these will be available in June.
The next issue of the Newsletter will
cover: strategies for meat and milk dis-
tribution in big cities; technology de-
velopment for milk collection, process-
ing and marketing; milk producers\'
organizations for inputs and services;
regional dairy information network
programme; world and regional milk
and dairy products outlook; and FAO
and IDF meetings, workshops and pub-
hcations.

The newsletter is distributed free-of-
charge and people wishing to ensure
that their names are registered on the
mailing list should contact either of the
following persons:

J.C. Lambert, Dairy Office, FAO/
AGAP, Viale della Terme di Caracalla,
00100 Rome, Italy, or Ernest Mann,
IDF, 41 Square Vergotte, 1030 Brus-
sels, Belgium.

ilViSc in Tropical Veterinary Epi-
demiology (1998 -99) at the Free
University Berlin - Faculty of
Veterinary ilVledicine

The MSc programme which is conduc-
ted in English runs from March 1998
and provides specialized training in
epidemiology and preventive veterinary
medicine. It comprises modular course
work over 7 months (PC-operated data
processing; veterinary epidemiology
and statistics up to the advanced level;
animal production and health planning
and management in the (sub)tropics;
livestock economics; zoonosis control
and consumer protection aspects), fol-
lowed by individual projects and thesis
research work. Target group: yoimg
and mid-career veterinarians from
(sub)tropical countries.

I. Sandwich programme between the
FU Berlin and Addis Ababa University,
Ethiopia (22 months plus 2 months
introductory German language course),
with a focus on East African countries
and participants. Ten (10) scholarships
are available, otherwise course fee of
DM 29,200 plus stipend are required.

11. Berlin - Germany Programme
IIL Berlin - Home Country Pro-
gramme (18 months). Course fee of
DM 29,200 plus stipend required.
Certain course work modules in epide-
miology and animal health management
of 4 weeks duration each, can also be
elected separately. Closing date; 31
August, 1997 for scholarship applica-
tion under option I, otherwise 30 Sep-
tember, 1997.

Further information and apphcation
forms: The Coordinator, Postgraduate
Studies in Tropical Veterinary Medi-
cine, FU Berlin, Luisenstrasse 56, D-
10117 Berlin (Tel: 49.30.20936063,
fax: 49.30.-20936349, e-mail:
tropvet(^city. vetmed.fu-berlin.de, web
site: http: Wwwwl.vetmed.fu-berlin.de).

10-15 August, 1997
16\'*\' Intemational Conference of the
World Association for Advancement
of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP).
Organized by: Parasitological Society
for the Advancement of Southem
Africa. Information: WAAVP
Conference, Event Dynamics, P.O. Box
567, Stathaven, 2031, South Africa
(Tel.: 27.11.8836155, telefax: 27.-
11.8839643).

24 - 29 August, 1997
World Congress on Food Hygiene and
12quot;quot; Intemational symposium of the
World Association of Veterinary Food
Hygienists. Congress theme: Healthy
animals, healthy food, healdiy consum-
ers. Information and regjsfration: Royal
Netherlands Veterinary Association,
Mrs. D. Raasing, P.O. Box 14031, NL-
3508 SB Utrecht (Telephone:
31.30.2510111, telefax: 31.30-
2511787, e-mail: knmvd
@pobox.mu.nI).

6-12 September, 1997
7*\'\'Intemational Theriological Congress
(7ITC) and Symposium on \'Veterinari-
ans in conservation biology\'. Organized
by: World Association of Wildlife Ve-
terinarians. Information: Dr. A.W,
English, University of Sidney, Depart-
ment of Animal Health, Private Mail-
bag 3, Camden, NSW 2579, Australia
(Telefax: 61.46.552931).

8-10 September, 1997
Southern and Eastern Africa Veterinary
Padiology Symposium. Organized by:
Charles Louis Davis DVM Foundation
in cosponsor-ship with the Faculty of
Veterinary Science of the University
ofZimbabwe. Location: The Organisa-
tional Training and Development
Centre, St. Lucia Park, Crichton Ave-
nue, Harare. Registration closing 1
August, 1997. Information and Regis-
tration: C.L. Davis DVM Foundation,
Dr. Samuel Thompson, National
Programmes Director, 6245 Formoor
Lane, Gumee, Illinois 60031, USA.
(Tel.: 1.847.3674359). For more
infonnation see EQUATOR no. 2 of
March/April, 1997.

Start of modular MSc/MPhil courses
in \'Intemational Animal Health and
Sustainable Development\' and \'Veteri-
nary Laboratory Science\'. Organized
by: University of Edinburgh. Informa-
tion: The Director, Cenfre for Tropical
Veterinary Medicine, Royal (Dick)
School of Veterinary Studies, Easter
Bush, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9RG,
(Tel. 44.131.6506289, fax: 44.-
131.4455099, e-mail: Jeanette. Mac-
Donald@ed.ac.uk, WWW: http:
//www. vet.ed. ac.uk/ctvm).

Training course on: \'Improving cattle
traction, milk and meat production\'.
Organized by: Intemational Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI). Objective
of the course: Provide an integrated
approach to the use of cattle as multi-
purpose animals (traction, meat and
milk) in mixed crop-livestock small-
holder farming systems. Fee: US$ 3520
including tuition fees and full board
accommodation. Information and
application: Programme leader,
SCNARS, ILRI, P.O. Box 5689,
AddisAbaba (Fax: 251.1.611892,
e-mail: M.Smalley@ cgnet.com).

4- 6 November, 1997
Intemational Conference on Ethno-
veterinary Medicine: Altematives for
livestock development. Organized by:
BIAF Research Development Founda-
tion. Call for papers, posters etc. is
open with a deadline of 30 July, 1997.
Last date for registration: 30 Septem-
\' ber, 1997. Information and registration:
Dr. D.V. Rangnekar, BIAF Research
DevelopmentFoundation,P.O,B. 2030,
Mafatlalndustries Compound, Asarwa,
Ahmedabad - 380016, hidia (Telefax:
91.79.2123045, e-mail: biaf ahm@
lwahm.nandanet.com).

to increasing productivity of small
ruminants in smallholder farmimg
systems. Fee: US$ 3520 including
tuition fees and fiill board accommoda-
tion. Information and application:
Programme leader, SCNARS, ILRI,
P.O. Box 5689, AddisAbaba (Fax:
251.1.611892, e-mail: M.Smalley®
cgnet.com).

28 November, 1997
8quot;^ Intemational symposium: Tropical
Animal Health and Production. Theme:
\'Aquaculture and disease control\'.
Organized by the Committee for the
Advancement of Tropical veterinary
Science (CATS) and the Office for
Intemational Cooperation of the Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht
University. Registration before 15
November, 1997 to Office for Inter-
national Cooperation, Faculty ofVeteri-
nary Medicine. P.O. Box 80.163,3508
TDUtrecht(Telefax: 31.30.2531815,
e-mail bic@bic.dgk.mu.nl).

10-12 December, 1997
Intemational Colloquium on the
\'Epidemiology and control of bovine
theileriosis\'. Organized by: Institute
of Tropical Medicine. Subjects: epi-
demiology, immunization, treatment,,
control programmes and economic
aspects. Registration fee: Bfr 4,000,
students Bfr 2,000. Registration: Mrs.
D. Van Melle, Institute of Tropical
Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, 2000
Antwerp (Tel. 32.3.2476206, telefax:
32.3.2161431, e-mail: dvmelle@
itg.be).

12 January - 10 July, 1998
11\'\'\' Intemational Course on Daiiy Hus-
bandry and Milk Processing.
Programme: Dairy deve-lopment.
Animal husbandry. Milk processing.
Teaching and extension. Dairy farm
management, Small-scale milk pro-
cessing. Closing date: 1 October 1997.
Infomiation and application: IPC Live-
stock, Dairy Training Centre Friesland,
P.O. Box 85,9062 ZJ Oenkerk (Tel.:
31.582561562, telefax: 31.58-
2561628, e-mail: ipcdiero@pi.net).

22 - 27 Febmary, 1998
Second Pan Commonwealth Veterinary
Conference on \'Animal health and
production in rural areas. The essential
role of women at all levels\'. Topics:
Animal Production (cattle, buffalo,
sheep, goats, pigs, equines, camels,
elephants, ostriches, transport and draft
animals, embryo transfer); Animal
Health (animal health of domestic and
companion animals, emerging and
reemerging diseases, animal nutrition,
vaccine production) and Veterinary
Education (reciprocity in Common-
wealth, assessment, extension training,
continuing education and distance
learning). Information: Organizing
Secretary, 123,7th \'B\' Main Road, IV
Block (West), Jayanagar, Bangalore-
560011 (Tel.; 91.80646857, telefax:
91.806635210, e-mail: rahman.cva@
sm4. sprintrpg. ems. vsnl. net. in).

Master of Science Training Course in
\'Tropical Veterinary Epidemiology\'
for veterinarians from developing coun-
tries. Organized by: veterinary faculties
of the Free University of Berlin and
Addis Ababa University. Programme
includes course work, exams and
research participation in Berlin and
applied research, short training courses
and workshops in Addis Abeba. Sub-
ject: modem concepts in population
medicine for the improvement of the
health status of animal populations.
Tuition fees: US$ equivalent of DM
29,200. Deadline for application for
DAAD scholarships 31 August, 1997.
Closing date for registration: 30 Sep-
tember, 1997. Information and registra-
tion: The Coordinator, Freie Universität
Berlin, Postgraduate Studies in Tropical
Veterinary Medicine, Luisenstrasse 56
D-10117 Berlin (Tel.: 49.30 -
.20936063,telefax: 49.30.20936349,
e-mail: TropVet@ city.vetmed.fu-
beriin.de, http: Wwwwl.vetmed.fu-
berlin.de). For more information see
elsewhere in this EQUATOR.

Harare, Zimbabwe
14-18 September, 1998
IX Intemational Conference of the
Association of histitutions of Tropical
Veterinary Medicine (AITVM): \'Ani-
mal health and Production for Sustain-
able Development\'. Organized by;
Faculty of Veterinary Science, Univer-
sity of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box MP 167,
Harare. Location: International Confer-
ence Centre, Harare.

J.HA. de Gooijer
R.W. Paling DVM PhD
(editor-in-chief)
W.D. Vink MVM
P R. van Weeren DVM PhD

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Office for Intemational
Cooperation
P.O. Box 80.163
3508 TD Utrecht
The Netherlands
Tel.: 31.30.2532116
Fax: 31.30.2531815
E-mail: bic@bic.dgk.mu.nl

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

A new cycle of the MSc Course Pro-
gramme starts in Utrecht in September,
1998. The courses are organized in the
framework of the Graduate School of
Animal Health (GSAH), in which the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
Utrecht University and the ID-DLO
Institute for Animal Science and
Health, Lelystad are participating. The
MSc courses have the following general
characteristics. They aim at a
deepening of the knowledge in a spe-
cific veterinary discipline. The courses
have a minimum duration of 18 months
and contain an educational part with
classes, practicals, case studies and
demonstrations and a research compo-
nent. The students will be examined
and need to pass the examinations be-
fore they can start with the research
part. A research project is selected
within one of the research programmes
of the GSAH and the project should at
least result in one publication in Eng-
lish in a peer-reviewed intemational
journal. In general, applicants with a
university degree in veterinaiy medicine
can apply for admission. The Education
Committee of the GSAH advices the
Director about proposals from the fa-
culty\'s departments to start MSc
courses. After the green light has been
given by the Director, the departments
concerned are responsible for the orga-
nization, content, pricing and quality of
the courses. The GSAH forms a Stu-
dent Admission Committee for each of
the courses. The Office for Intema-
tional Cooperation of the Faculty takes
care of the logistics and arrangements
for the visits of the participants. Stu-
dents who have successfully completed
an MSc course of the GSAH can apply
for admission to a shortened PhD track
within one of the GSAH research
programmes. Admission of such for-
mer MSc students is judged by the
GSAH management, assisted by the
Education Committee. If admitted as
PhD student (to a PhD programme in
the same discipline, and with PhD
research on the same subject as during
the MSc period) the student may be
awarded waivers for large parts of the
GSAH education programme. It is ob-
vious that scientific data and publica-
tions obtained during the MSc period
will be included in the PhD thesis.

Beside for its University,
Utrecht is also known for
the famous Dom church
(Photo: Utrecht Photo
Service)

1998 (microbiology and anaes-
thesiology), one course will be organ-
ised for the second time (pathology)
and one course will be held for the
third time (epidemiology).

The objectives of this course are: (1) to
update the knowledge of veterinary
microbiology and immunology; (2) to
understand the principals of and de-
velop practical skills in routine
(molecular-biological) diagnostic tech-
niques; (3) to develop the necessary
knowledge and experience to perform
research in microbiology.

The course includes the following
subjects diu-ing an 18 months period.
During the fnst six months attention is
given to: (1) courses on general micro-
biology, diagnostic techniques, viro-
logy, bacteriology, parasitology,
inmiunology, quality control, informa-
tics and scientific writing; (2) practicals
and laboratory classes; (3) workshops
on management of veterinary
microbiological diagnostic centres and
writing project proposals.
During the next twelve months a re-
search project is executed which
includes: study, design, work plan, per-
forming of experiments, data collection
and analysis, reporting and publication.

The ability to diagnose infectious ani-
mal diseases and the understanding of
the disease mechanism and modes of
transmission form the basis of veteri-
nary intervention. Infectious diseases
are the major obstacle for the develop-
ment of the livestock sector in develop-
ing countries.

The objectives of this cotuse are: to
develop (1) knowledge on epidemio-
logy and statistics to perform indepen-
dent research and analysis of
epidemiological data; (2) knowledge of
economics to perform economic analy-
ses of epidemiological data; (3) ability
to apply theoretical epidemiological
and health research concepts to practi-
cal veterinary medicine.

The course includes the following
subjects during an 18 months period.
During the first six months attention is
given to: courses on epidemiology, sta-
tistics and survey design, applied epide-
miology and herd health, animal health
economics, informatics and scientific
writing and practicals on farm training.
During the following twelve months a
research project is executed whereby
the epidemiological methods are ap-
plied to the research including: study,
design, work plan, performing of ex-
periments, data collection and analysis,
reporting and publication.

The vmderstanding of the epidemiology
of animal diseases forms the basic
knowledge for veterinarians for the de-
sign of any economically soimd disease
control programme. This knowledge

The objectives of this cotirse are: to
develop knowledge on general patho-
logy and pathophysiology in order to be
able to perform independently disease
diagnoses, studies and surveys of indi-
vidual animals and animal populations.

The course includes the following
subjects during a 24 months period.
During the first year attention is given
to: courses on cell pathology, defence
mechanisms, circulatory disturbances,
tumour pathology, endocrine pathol-
ogy, general toxicological pathology,
laboratory animal science, informatics
and scientific writing and laboratory
techniques.

During the second year a research pro-
ject is executed including: study, de-
sign, work plan, performing of experi-
ments, data collection and analysis,
reporting and publication.

The imderstanding of the pathology and
pathophysiology of animal diseases
forms the basic knowledge for veteri-
narians for any treatment and disease
control programme. This knowledge
can be directly applied in developing
coimtries.

The objectives of this coiu-se are (1) to
develop in-depth knowledge of the dif-
ferent aspects of veterinary anaesthe-
siology to allow adequate evaluation of
the quahty and/or validity of the clini-
cal anaesthesia procedures and research
protocols (2) to acquire adequate know-
ledge on the basic principles of all as-
pects of clinical research and (3) to ap-
ply these skills in the proper execution
of a research plan

The course includes the following
subjects during an 18 months period.
During approximately 6 months train-
ing will be provided in veterinaiy an-
aesthesia of large animals (equine, bo-
vine, and porcine), companion animals
(canine, feline and exotic pets) and la-
boratory animals (rodents and rabbits)
and optionally exotic zoo and wild ani-
mals. Special attention will be given to
applied physiology and pharmacology
with emphasis on the different vital
organ fimctions affected by anaesthe-
sia. Subsequently approximately 12
months will be spend on a research pro-
ject including: study, design, work plan,
performing of experiments, data collec-
tion and analysis, reporting and publi-
cation.

This course will strengthen the profes-
sional and academic capacity of veteri-
narians involved in anaesthesiology in
private and university veterinary cli-
nics. Specifically those who are in-
volved in the handling of wild animals
under free-ranging or semi-domestic
conditions can benefit from this course.

The educational requirements are that
in general applicants with a university
degree in veterinary medicine can apply
for admission. Additionally a good
knowledge of English (Toefl test result
over 550) is required and 1 year of rele-
vant working experience. For some of
the courses fellowships may be
available from the Netherlands
Fellowship Programme.
For more information you can contact
the Office for Intemational Coopera-
tion, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
P.O. Box 80.163, 3508 TD Utrecht, the
Netheriands (Telefax: 31.30.253-
1815, e-mail: bic(^bic.dgk.mu.nl).

quot;I just wanted to see high-level
veterinary medicine and to learn the
differences between a fully developed
country and a country like Costa
Rica. Costa Rica is not a third world
country like some countries in
Africa, but it is not in the forefront
of technical development either, at
least not in veterinary medicine. Of
course it is interesting to know which
techniques can be used in Costa Rica,
taking into account the general con-
ditions there.quot;

quot;Of course. I spoke to Rafita {Rafael
Angel Vindas who was in Utrecht in
1994) and to Memo {Lms Guillermo
Arroyo who stayed at the university
in 1996). Both were very positive. I
learnt that in Utrecht the caseload is
very high with lots of surgeries, not
only during the day, but also almost
every night. Memo also told me that
the Dutch beer was very good!quot;

quot;Sure, of course the geographical
situation and also the climate are
very different. {Adrian looks with a
grin out of the window, against
which the eternal rain of the
beginning 1997 Dutch summer is
clattering.) But, more important is
that also the people are different.
Over there the students always go
home in the weekends if they are not
on duty. Here the majority stays and
invites you to dinner and has a good
time.quot;

So, student life is different here? By
the way, how did you manage with
the Dutch students?

quot;Oh yes, the students are more
independent. One of the reasons for
that is that the number of students in
Utrecht is much higher {in Costa
Rica on average 20-25 students enter
each year). There are also negative
aspects related to these higher
numbers. People do not know each
other that well, which may make
communication difficult. In the
smaller groups that are formed for
the rotation during the last year of
the curriculum you can see more or
less the same rather close relation-
ships as in Costa Rica.quot;

On July 29quot; KLM flight 743 took Adrian Solano back to his home country
Costa Rica after a practical training of six months at Utrecht University\'s
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. He was the third final year student from
Costa Rica in a row to spend 6 months in the clinic of the department of
General and Large Animal Surgery. Just before Adrian\'s departure your
EQUATOR-reporter interviewed him about the months he spent in the
Netherlands and his plans for the future.

With respect to the second part of
your question: I think I did not have
many problems with the Dutch
students or they with me. Only when
I was in Internal Medicine there were
two girls who did not want me to do
anything because then they had less
to do. However, this was an excep-
tion. In the house where I lived with
many other students I got on well
with everybody. The only thing was
that I lived for almost 6 months on
Chinese take away food as the
kitchen was too dirty to use!

quot;Most of the time I stayed at the
Department of General and Large
Animal Surgery. I also spent a period
of three weeks at Internal Medicine
and I visited a number of farms with
Jan van Amerongen who works at
the Ambulatory Clinic and who also
has worked for a couple of years in
Costa Rica. Further, I quite frequent-
ly assisted Edwin Enzerink {a resi-
dent at the Department of General
and Large Animal Surgery who is in-
volved in a joint research project
with the Institute for Horse Hus-
bandry in Lelystad) when he went to
Lelystad to take X-rays. I also
attended the scientific meeting of the
European College of Veterinary Sur-
geons in Versailles, France, and I
spent a week at a very well-run pri-
vate practice in Belgium.
Besides, I visited Luxembourg, Ger-
many, Switzerland and Italy to see
something of Europe. It was fun
crossing die border to Italy. In Italy I
immediately felt at home, they are
Latin. The Swiss are like you, more
formal and incontestably cooler.quot;

quot;Oh yes, for sure. With the Dutch it
takes a lot of time to quot;break the icequot;
as we say it. With the Germans that
is even more difficult. The Belgians

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

Utrecht University, one of the 14 universities in the Ne-
therlands, 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 in collaborative re-
search projects in the tropics.

In 1987 the Faculty\'s Office for Intemational Cooperation
(BIC) started with the coordination and extension of the
intemational activities. In 1989 the 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 Health and Production is an acti-
vity of BIC and CATS. From 1990 onwards a yearly
symposium has been organized. The themes were:

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

Contributions and perspectives from the Facul-
ty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University
Research for development: policies, priorities
and options
Bovine theileriosis

Application of biotechnology
Helminth diseases of ruminants: diagnosis,
epidemiology, and control
Urbanisation: veterinary public health conse-
quences

In 1997 Utrecht University\'s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
organises the 8th symposium on Tropical Animal Health
and Production. The organising committee has selected as
this year\'s theme: \'Aquaculture and disease control\'.
In many tropical areas aquaculture can to a significant extent
be a means to provide protein for the population. Fish is food
of high quality and production costs may be low. Consump-
tion and handling of fish may offer risks to public health.
Enzootic outbreaks of disease and zoonotic infections occur
very easily, especially under tropical conditions.
Therefore the veterinary profession has to play an important
role in this field. Health parameters should be known and
monitored to be able to make an early diagnosis. Appropriate
measurements can only be taken if the aetiology, pathogene-
sis and symptoms of aquatic diseases are known. The re-
quired study of diseases in aquatic organisms offers interest-
ing comparative aspects. The use of chemotherapeutics
should be minimal because of the risks for contamination of
the produtc with residues and selection for resistance. More-
over, the possibilities for treatment are often minimal. Other
approaches for disease control, such as zootechnical preven-
tion or immunisation should be emphasised. The smart use
of genetics and biotechnology may increase production.
During this symposium all these aspects will be considered
and the role of veterinarians in aquaculture will be discussed.

Prof Dr. J.E. van Dijk (chairman)
J.H.A. de Gooijer (treasurer)
Dr. R.W. Paling (secretary)
Prof Dr. C.J.J. Richter
Dr. V.P.M.G. Rutten

Prof. Dr. F. van Knapen (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
Utrecht Uinversity, The Netheriands).

Nutritional aspects in relation to fish health
Dr. A. Obach (NUTRECO, Forus, Norway).

Dr. O.L.M. Haenen (DLO-Institute for Animal Science and
Health, Lelystad, The Netheriands).

Control of disease in aquatic organisms by immunisation
Prof. Dr. W.B. van Muiswinkel (Wageningen Agricultural
University, The Netherlands).

I wish to attend the 8quot;quot; Symposium quot;Tropical Animal Health
and Production. Urbanisation: veterinary public health conse
quencesquot; on 28 November, 1997 at the Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine, De Uithof, Utrecht.

Office for Intemational Cooperation
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
P.O. Box 80.163
3508 TD Utrecht
the Netheriands.
Telefax: 31.30.2531815
E-mail: bic@bic.dgk.mu.nl

Prof. Dr. S. Geerts
Institute of Tropical Medicine
Dept. of Tropical Veterinary
Medicine

Prof. Dr. D. Mehlitz
Institute for Parasitology and
Tropical Veterinary Medicine
Free University of Berlin
Koningsweg 67
14163 Berlin Germany

Prof. Dr. F.A. Abiola
Directeur de l\'Ecole
Inter-Elats des Sciences et
Médicine Vétérinaires
B.P. 5077
Dakar Sénégal

Prof. Dr.L.E.C. Alfaro
Inst. Investigacao Cientifica
Tropical EMS Veterinaria
Rue de Gomes Frelre
1100 LIsboa Portugal

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and
Animal Science
Universiti Pertanian Malaysia
43400 Serdang Selangor Malaysia

Dr. R.W. Paling

Office for International Cooperation
Utrecht University
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
P.O. Box 80.163

3508 TD Utrecht The Netherlands

Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine
University of Edinburgh
Easter Bush, Roslin, EH25 9RE
Scotland U.K.

The Ninth Intemational Conference of Institutions of
Tropical Veterinary Medicine

14th - 18th September, 1998
Harare - Zimbabwe
Harare International Conference Centre

Organised by the Zimbabwe National Organizing Committee
- Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Zimbabwe
- Zimbabwe Veterinary Association

THE NINTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF
INSTITUTIONS OF TROPICAL VETERINARY MEDICINE
IN HARARE, ZIMBABWE, 14TH - 18TH SEPTEMBER,
1998

The Association of Institutions of Tropical Veterinary
Medicine is composed of institutes which are specifically
engaged in education in tropical animal health and
production at all levels, in research and promotion of
livestock development. The activities of the Association are
organised by a Standing Committee consisting of
representatives from eleven countries.

Amongst others, the Association has organised eight
international Conferences on tropical animal health and
production: in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1973), in West Germany
(West Berlin, 1976), in Kenya (Nairobi, 1980), in Florida
(Kissimmie, 1983), in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, 1986), in
The Netherlands (Wageningen, 1989), in Cote d\'lvoire (Ya-
moussoukro, 1992), and in Germany (Berlin, 1995).

The 1998 Conference is focused on animal health and
production for development with particular reference to
needs for regional integrated animal disease control,
domestic animal and wildlife resource management,
increasing efficiency of public and private livestock health
delivery systems, veterinary public health and food safety,
and re-orientation of the veterinary curriculum. Rural deve-
lopment, community participation and the environment will
form important aspects of the topics for discussion in
plenary sessions as well as workshops.

It is anticipated that the Conference will provide another
effective forum for scientists of tropical animal health and
production and key persons fronn developing and developed
countries to link together efforts for integrated approach to
promoting animal health and production in the context of
development The Conference will offer the opportunity for
information on new developments, on problem analysis,
identification of requirements for future strategies and
concepts for exchange of experiences and proposals
between representatives from developing countries, agencies
for technical cooperation and scientists.

The invited participants of the Conference will include official
representatives from tropical countries, major funding
agencies, bilateral and international agencies and regional
organisations of animal health and production of tropical
regions.

The theme of the Conference is quot;Animal Health and
Production For Developmentquot;

disease control programmes
-Domestic animal and wildlife resource management
-Increasing efficiency of public and private livestock health

service delivery systems
-Veterinary public health and food safety
-Re-orientation of the veterinary curriculum

Note: Special attention will be given to rural development,
community participation and environment in all the
workshops.

Prof. M.J. Obwolo
Faculty of Veterinary Science
University of Zimbabwe
P.O. Box MP 167
Harare, Zimbabwe

Final plenary session (one day)

Discussion of the reports and proposals for policies and _ .

strategiesnbsp;\'opic:.....................................................................

SUPPORT FOR ATTENDANCE

The organisers and the Standing Committee will approach ..............................................................................

relevant agencies for sponsoring of participants from p.

developing countries.nbsp;entitled:..................................................................

Those intending to participate and/or present papers at the

Conference should complete the attached form and return itnbsp;oo

as soon as possible.nbsp;Slqnature-

Abstracts will be requested in the second announcement.nbsp;................................................................

□nbsp;I wish to participate at the Conference and to
receive further Information

are very friendly and the Swiss are
like you as I already mentioned.
Once tlie ice is broken, everybody is
much more friendly but in the
beginning you all keep some dis-
tance. quot;

What do you think of the role of the
students in the clinics in Utrecht in
comparison to Costa Rica?

quot;Two things: they are seeing a lot
more cases and they are doing
different things. Let me explain this.
The caseload is incredibly much
higher here. The number of patients
you operate upon in a year we will
probably not have in half a century.
So, they have a much better oppor-
tunity to learn by seeing cases. Ima-
gine, I saw in 5 years only one
equine lameness case! You will un-
derstand that when I came here the
first few days I was not able to tell
the lame leg from the sound limbs!
On the other hand, much of the work
is done by the stewards, like shaving
the patients for operation, restraining
them and so on. Here in Utrecht, the
students do not have to walk horses
with colic like they have to do over
there. Also, the students are very ac-

Induction of inhalation
anaesthesia in a very
young patient in the opera-
tion room. (Photo: P.
Inbsp;Gootjes).

customed to the high technical level
and to having everything at their dis-
posal. Here they take blood samples
for the analysis of the acid-base ba-
lance of every patient that is only
slightly suspected of having some
trouble with this, or just for routine
checks. It\'s just taking some blood,
putting it in the machine and after
two minutes you have your values. In
Costa Rica I saw it done once, in a
foal. They had to take the sample to
a human hospital and to pay $ 55.-
for the analysis. In those circum-
stances you think twice before taking
such a sample. This brings me to the
fact that the economical aspect is
very important. Here in the Nether-
lands a lot of horses are insured and
the insurance companies pay the
costs of surgery. Therefore, it does
not matter to the owner if surgery for
colic will cost ƒ 4,000.quot; or ƒ 5,000.-.
In Costa Rica horse insurances are
non-existent.

Another thing is that the students
here have plenty vets to ask ques-
tions to, there it is not rare that there
is nobody to ask anything.quot;

quot;Yes, also in the sense that appa-
rently here there is no competition
between these groups. In my country
university professors sometimes see
the students as a future menace.
Therefore, in some occasions they do
not give all the information they
have. They quot;hide the milkquot; as we use
to say. Maybe one of the reasons
why this does not happen here is that
there is no intertwinement of inte-
rests between private practice and the
university career, as is common in
my country. Our professor of Patho-
logy, Berrocal, who has worked for
4 years in the Netherlands, always
says that the Dutch have quot;just an-
other way of thinkingquot;. As a student
I always thought: quot;Oh, again that
silly old fool about his \'other way of
thinking\'quot;, but now I see what he
means. It really is a matter of cul-
ture, of a different culture. Another
example is that you respect the
specialisations of other people. If in
the Surgery Department there is a
problem in the field of internal
medicine, they\'ll call somebody in
from the Medicine Department and
vice versa. In my country that is seen
as a weakness.quot;

/ understand that in general
veterinary education is at a better
level here than in Costa Rica?

Integration with the staff-
members presented no
problem to Adrian. (Photo:
P. Gootjes).

opinion closely linked to the case
load. However, there is one ex-
ception. I think that our training in
reproduction in cattle is better than
what people get here. I came across
last year students who had palpated
between 20 and 25 cows during their
study. That is an extremely low num-
ber. In Costa Rica we do our prac-
tical training in the slaughter houses
and we palpate hundreds of cows
under the guidance of an excellent
teacher, dr. Padilla. It was really
great fun for me when we went out
to do rectals on a farm with Jan van
Amerongen and he himself checked
all results of every student except for
mine. When one of the Dutch stu-
dents asked him why, he simply
answered that he knew how and by
whom I had been taught in this field

quot;I really would like to learn more.
To do an internship in some place
and then see what I can apply of all
the things I learnt in my own coun-
try. However, the financial part will
probably be a problem. I was very
happy to get the grant that made it
possible for me to stay here {Adrian
Solano was granted a so-called Tin-
bergen Scholarship by the Dutch Em-
bassy in Costa Rica) and I am very
grateftil to the Dutch Embassy and
NUFFIC (the organisation that takes
care of the practical and financial as-
pects during the stay in Holland). If I
cannot arrange anything I shall see if
I can get work in the private sector
in Costa Rica. A university job is not
what I prefer. The conditions are less
than optimal and I also think that the
mentality of the people working there
should change....quot;

The section RECENT PUBLICATIONS is included in the English 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 coimtries, will 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.

Mariner, J.C., klooster, G.G.M. van\'t and Berhanu, A. (1996). Rinderpest control in Ethiopia: Participatory approach to vaccination in
remote pastoral cummunities. In: Livestock production and diseases in the tropics: Livestock production and human welfare. Ed. H.
Zessin. Proceedings of the 8th Intemational Conference of Institutions of Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Berlin, 1995. pp. 324-329.

Schreuder, B.E.C., Moll, H.A.J., Noorman, N., Halimi, M. and Wassink, G. (1996). A benefit-cost analysis of veterinaiy interventions in
Afghanistan based on a livestock mortality study. In: Livestock production and diseases in tiie tropics: Livestock production and human
welfare. Ed. H. Zessin. Proceedings of the 8th Intemational Conference of Institutions of Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Berlin, 1995.
pp. 574-581.

Zadocs, R.N., Lopes Pereira, C, Poel, W.H.M. van der, Kramps, J.A., Maazen, W.G.G.M. van der and Keulen, K.A.S. van (1996).
Serosurvey of viral respiratoiy disease in goats and sheep in southern Mozambique. In: Livestock production md diseases in the
tropics: Livestock production and human welfare. Ed. H. Zessin. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference of Institutions of
Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Berlin, 1995. pp. 731.

Graaf, T. de, Romero Zuniga, J.J., Caballero, M. and Dwinger, R.D. (1997). Microbiological quality aspects of cow\'s milk at a smallholder
cooperative in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Revue d\'Elevage et ^ Médicine vétérinaire de Pays tropicaux 50: 57-64.

Zwart, D. and Jong, R. de (1996). Animal health and daily production in developing countries. In: Herd health and production manageent
in dairy practice. Eds. A. Brand, J.P.T.M. Noordhuizen, Y.H. Schukken. Wageningen Press, pp. 511 -543.

Bosman, H.B., Does, C. van der and Zwart, D. (1996). Training programmes for livestock specialists in developing countries. In:
Livestock production and diseases in the tropics: Livestock production and human welfare. Ed. H. Zessin. Proceedings of the 8th
Intemational Conference of Institutions of Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Berlin, 1995. pp. 657-663.

Boersema, J.H. and Pandey, V.S. (1997). Anthelmintic resistance of trichostrongylids in sheep in the highveld of Zimbabwe. Veterinary
Parasitology 68: 383-388.

Moyo, D.Z., Bwangamoi, O., Hendrikx, W.M.L. and Eysker, M. (1997). A study of gastrointestinal nematode infections in communal
cattle on the highveld of Zimbabawe. Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal 28; 26.

Moyo, D.Z., Eysker, M., Hendrikx, W.M.L., Bwangamoi, O. and Obwolo, M.J. (1997). Ostertagia ostertagia infection in cattle on an
irrigated farm on the highveld of Zimbabawe. Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal 28: 1-5.

Kock, N.D., Jongejan, F., Vliet, A.H.M. van and Chariton, K. (1996). Evidence oiCowdria ruminantium infection in wildlife species of
Zimbabwe. Proceedings Wildlife Disease Association Conference. Fairbanks, Alaska, July, 1996, p. 71.

Oliveira, C. d\', Weide, M. van der, Jacquiet, P. and Jongejan, F. (1997). Detection of Theileria annulata by PCR in ticks (Acari: Ixodidae)
collected from cattle in Mauritania. Experimental and Applied Acarology 21: 279-291.

29 September - 4 October, 1997
Course in \'African Epizootic Diseases\'.
Training of veterinarians in the epide-
miology, diagnosis and control of epizootic
diseases. Organized by: Faculty of Veteri-
nary Science, University of Pretoria.
Subjects: foot-and-mouth disease, African
horsesickness, lungsickness. Rift Valley
fever, anthrax, Newcastle disease, African
swine fever etc. Fees:US$ 2,500 including
tuition, materials accommodation and
meals. Application: Course Convenor,
Dept. of Veterinary Tropical Diseases,
Faculty of Veterinary Science, University
of Pretoria, Private Bag X04,
Onderstepoort 0110, South Africa (Tel.:
27.12.5298269, telefax: 27.12.
5298312, e-mail: Mek5@opl .up.ac.za).
Next course in September, 1998.

Start of modular MSc/MPhil courses in
\'International Animal Health and Sustain-
ableDevelopment\' and\' Veterinary Labora-
tory Science\'. Organized by: University
of Edinburgh. Information: The Director,
Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine,
Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies,
Easter Bush, Roslin, Midlothian EH25

9RG, (Tel. 44.131.6506289, fax: 44.-
131.4455099, e-mail:
Jeanette.MacDonald@ed. ac.uk).

6 - 24 October, 1997
Training course on: \'Improving cattle
traction, milk and meat production\'.
Organized by: Intemational Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI). Objective of the
course: Provide an integrated approach to
the use of cattle as multipurpose animals
(traction, meat and milk) in mixed crop-
livestock smallholder farming systems.
Fee: USS 3520 including tuition fees and
full board accommodation. Information and
application; Programme leader, SCNARS,
ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, AddisAbaba (Fax:
251.1.611892, e-mail:
M.Smalley@ cgnet.com).

10-28 November, 1997
Training course on: \'Small ruminant
production techniques\'. Organized by:
Intemational Livestock Research Institute
(ILRI). Objective of the course: Provide
an integrated approach to increasing
productivity of small ruminants in small-
holder farmimg systems. Fee: USS 3520
including tuition fees and foil board accom-
modation. Information and application:
Programme leader, SCNARS, ILRI, P.O.
Box 5689, Addis Ababa (Fax: 251.-
1.611892,e-mail:M.Smalley@cgnet.com).

28 November, 1997
Squot;* Intemational symposium: Tropical Ani-
mal Health and Production. Theme: \'Aqua-
culture and disease control\'. Organized by
the Committee for the Advancement of
Tropical veterinary Science (CATS) and
the OfBce for International Cooperation
of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of
Utrecht University. Registration before 15
November, 1997 to OflBce for Intemational
Cooperation, Faculty of Veterinaiy Medici-
ne. P.O. Box 80.163, 3508 TD Utrecht
(Telefax: 31.30.2531815, e-mail:
bic@bic.dgk.mu.nl). For more information
see elsewhere in this EQUATOR.

10-12 December, 1997
International Colloquium on the
\'Epidemiology and control of bovine
theileriosis\'. Organized by; Institute of
TropicalMedicine. Subjects: epidemiology,
immunization, treatment,, control pro-
grammes and economic aspects. Registra-
tion fee: Bfr 4,000, students Bfr 2,000.

Registration; Mrs. D. Van Melle, Institute i
of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155,
2000 Antwerp (Tel. 32.3.2476206,
telefax: 32.3.2161431, e-mail;
dvmelle@ itg.be).

22 - 27 Februaiy, 1998
Second Pan Commonwealth Veterinaiy
Conference on \'Animal health and produc-
tion in rural areas\'. Topics: Animal
Production (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats,
pigs, equine, camels, elephants, ostriches,
transport and draught animals, embryo
transfer); Animal Health (animal health of
domestic and companion animals, emerging
and re-emerging diseases, animal nutrition,
vaccine production) and Veterinary Educa-
tion (reciprocity in Commonwealth, assess-
ment, extension training, continuing
education and distance learning). Informa-
tion: Organizing Secretary, 123, 7th \'B\'
Main Road, IV Block (West), Jayanagar,
Bangalore-560011 (Tel.: 91.80646857,
fax: 91.806635210, e-mail: rahman.cva
@sm4.sprintrpg.ems.vsnl.net.in).

March, 1998 - December, 1999
Master of Science Training Course in
\'Tropical Veterinary Epidemiology\' for
veterinarians from developing countries.
Organized by: veterinary faculties of the
Free University of Berlin and Addis Ababa
University. Programme includes course
work, exams and research participation in
Berlin and applied research, short training
courses and workshops in Addis Abeba.
Subject: modem concepts in population
medicine for the improvement of the health
status of animal populations. Tuition fees;
US$ equivalent of DM 29,200. Closing
date for registration: 30 September, 1997.
Information and registration: The
Coordinator, Freie Universität Berlin,
Postgraduate Studies in Tropical Veterinary
Medicine,Luisenstrasse 56D-10117 Berlin
(Tel.: 49.30 .20936063, telefax:
49.30.209 36349, e-mail:
TropVet@ city.vetmed.fli-berlin.de,
http;\\\\wwwl .vetmed.fu-berlin.de).

3 August, 1998 -30 July, 1999
Degree of Master of Veterinary Studies\'
(MVS) in Avian Health. Organized by:
Faculty of Veterinary Science, University
of Melbourne. Areas of study: Poultry
pathology; Infectious causes and serology
of poultry diseases; Disease, diagnosis,
prevention and control; Poultry production
systems and procedures; Keyboard skills
for data handling; Enhanced communica-

I tion skills; Preparation of dissertation.
Tuition fee: $A 26,500. Closing date for
applications: 31 March, 1998. Information:
Dr. Trevor Bagust, Course Coordinator,
Faculty of Veterinary Science, University
of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052
(Tel.: 61.3.93449676, telefax: 61.3.-
93449675, e-mail:

16 August - 20 November, 1998
26* Intemational course on daiiy 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. 5,500. Closing
date: 1 May, 1998. Infonnation and regis-
tration; Intemational Agricultural Centre
(lAC), P.O. Box 88,6700 AB Wageningen
(Tel.; 31.317.490111, telefax: 31.317
418552, e-mail iac@iac.agro.nl).

24 August, 1998 - 25 February, 1999
28* Intemational course on poultiy husban-
dry and 28*International course on pig hus-
bandry, Organized by: IPC Livestock Inter-
national, Bameveld College. These courses
will run at the same time. Following these
courses participation is possible in the 21
International animal feed training pro-
gramme (AFTP), which runs from 1 March
to 27 May, 1999. 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, 1998. Information:
IPC Livestock Bameveld College, Dep.
of Intemational Studies and Cooperation
Programmes, P.O. Box 64, 3770 AB Bar-
neveld (Tel.: 31.342.414881, telefax:
31.342.492813, e-mail;
io@ipcdier.hacom.nl).

1 September, 1998 -31 August, 2000
Intemational MSc programme of the
Graduate School of Animal Health, Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine Utrecht University
and ID-DLO Institute for Animal Science
and Health, Lelystad. Infonnation: Office
for Intemational Cooperation, Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine. P.O. Box 80.163,
3508 TD Utrecht (Telefax: 31.30.253-
1815, e-mail: bic@bic.dgk.mu,nl). For
more information see elsewhere in this
EQUATOR.

14-18 September, 1998
IX Intemational Conference of the Asso-
ciation of Institutions of Tropical Veterinary
Medicine (AITVM); \'Animal health and
Production for Sustainable Development\'.
Organized by: Faculty of Veterinary
Science, University ofZimbabwe, P. O. Box
MP 167, Harare. Location: Intemational
Conference Centre, Harare. Registration:
Prof M.J. Obwolo, Faculty of Veterinary
Science, University ofZimbabwe,P.O. Box

M.P. 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare (Tel.
263.4.303211, telefax: 263.4.333683,
e-mail; vetscience@esanet.zw). For more
information see elsewhere in this EQUA-
TOR.

October, 1998 - October, 1999
MSc Course on Wild Animal Health for
graduates in veterinary and relevant sci-
ences. Including: practical and theoretical
instmction in the husbandry and nutrition
of wild animals, taxonomy, population
biology, conservation genetics, welfare and
ethical aspects, epidemiology, immunology,
infectious and non-infectious diseases,
disease investigation, restraint, preventive
medicine and surgery and an individual
research project. Organized by: The
Institute of Zoology (Zoological Society
of London) and The Royal Veterinaiy
College (University of London). Informa-
tion and registration: Registi\'ar, The Royal
Veterinary College, Royal College Street,
London NWl OTU (Tel. 44.171-
4685000, telefax: 44.171,3882342).

16-22 October, 1998
Joint meeting of the World Association of
Wildlife Veterinarians (WAWV), the
American Association of Zoo Veterinarians
(AAZV) and the Canadian Association of
Zoo and Wildlife Vetennarians (CAZWV).
Holiday Convention Centre, Omaha,
hiformation: Dr. Wilbur Amand, President
WAWV, 6 North Pennel Road (Lima),
Media PA 19063, USA,

20 - 25 September, 1999
Joint meeting of the European Section of
the Wildlife Disease Assciation (EWDA)
and the European Association Zoo and
Wildlife Veterinarians (EAZWV) at the
World Veterinary Congress in Lyon,
Infomiation: Dr, Marc Artois, CNEVA
Nancy, Domaine de Pixerecourt, BP 9,
54220 Malzeville, France.

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

J.H.A. de Gooijer
R.W. Paling DVM PhD
(editor-in-chief)
W.D. Vink MVM
P.R. van Weeren DVM PhD

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Office for International
Cooperation
P.O. Box 80.163
3508 TD Utrecht
The Netherlands
Tel.: 31.30.2532116
Fax: 31.30.2531815
E-mail: bic@bic.dgk.ruu.nl

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

On 30 September, 1997, the Office for
Intemational Cooperation (BIC) of the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of
Utrecht University celebrated its 10th
anniversary with a \'BIC party\'. Among
the special guests who came to the re-
ception were Prof. Obwolo, Dean of
Veterinary Science of the University of
Zimbabwe, Mr. Mumbengengwi, Am-
bassador of Zimbabwe in the Benelux,
Mr. Prathomvarl and Mr. Atthakor, the
Charge d\'Affaires and First Secretary,
of the Royal Thai Embassy in The
Hague and the Rector Magnificus of
Utrecht University, Prof Voorma.
Apart from these special guests, more
than 100 people came to congratulate
the BIC staff. Dr. Robert Pahng, Mr.

Prof. Obwolo, Mr. Mumben-
gengwi, Ambassador of Zim-
babwe in the Benelux and Ir.
Drs. Van Strien (Photo: Otter)

Jean de Gooijer, Mrs. Anke van Doom
and Mr. Michiel Dijkstra, who formed
the long-time \'crew\' of the Office.
The guests were (former) staff and stu-
dents of the faculty, but also visitors
from abroad who were studying or wor-
king at the faculty, and colleagues from
Utrecht University\'s central office and
other institutes in the Nethedands.

People could take notice of what BIC
has been doing over the 10 years, as for
the occasion the BIC staff had prepared
8 colourful posters, that were exposed
in the reception hall, to highlight the
various activities of the Office for In-
temational Cooperation over the past
10 years. Moreover, the reception was a
good occasion for people to meet old
friends and for the foreign visitors to

Mr. Atthakor, first Secretary of
the Royal Thai Embassy,
Dr Sirivaidyapong and
Mr. Prathomvarl, the Charge
d\'Affaires of the Royal Thai
Embassy in The Hague (Photo:
Otter)

meet faculty people who they usually
do not meet during their day to day ac-
tivities.

In his speech, the Dean of the Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine , Prof Hans de
Vries memorised the relatively short
history of the Office as follows: \'Al-
ready in 1983 the Faculty Council de-
cided to estabUsh an \'office for devel-
opment cooperation and tropical veteri-
nary medicine\' at the Faculty of Veteri-
nary Medicine. This office would get
the task \'to shape an active faculty pol-
icy for education and research in rela-
tion to developing countries\'. In the
course of the following years it became
clear that the Office should serve a
much wider range of intemational ac-
tivities and when it started in Septem-
ber 1987 with the appointment of Dr.
Robert Paling as Head of the Office,
the task became: \'To develop the inter-
national policy of the Faculty of Veteri-
nary Medicine and to stimulate and co-
ordinate the international contacts\'. The
result of it we can see to-day. The fac-
ulty has an average of 50 to 70 visiting
students and staff members at any
given time\'.

The Dean continued his speech by men-
tioning some of the many activities of
the Office for Intemational Coopera-
tion.

-nbsp;\'From 1988 the Office organised the
annual 10-week elective course for
6th year veterinary students on
\'Tropical Animal Health and Hus-
bandry\' (tropencursus)

-nbsp;In January 1989 the Office started Üie
publication of EQUATOR, a bi-
montiily Newsletter on \'Veterinary
Aspects of Intemational Develop-
ment Cooperation\' of which up to
now 50 issues have been published
with Dr. Paling and Jean de Gooijer
as principle editors throughout the
years.

-nbsp;On initiative of Dr. Paling and Prof
Dik Zwart, the Faculty Committee for
the Advancement of Tropical veteri-
nary Science, CATS (Tropencom-
missie) was established in 1989. In

September 1990 the First intema-
tional Symposium on \'Tropical Ani-
mal Health and Production\' was or-
ganised in Utrecht. This Symposium,
each year with a different theme, at-
tracts about 100-150 participants
from all over the worid. This year\'s
Symposium in November was on
\'Aquaculture and Disease Coitrol\'.

-nbsp;Following the fall of the Berlin wall,
the collaboration of the Faculty with
institutes in Eastem Europe, got a
major impulse in 1991 when the Of-
fice succeeded to attract substantial
European fimding from Bmssels for
this collaboration tmder the TEM-
PUS project.

-nbsp;To be at the forefront of veterinary
education in Europe has been an am-
bition of this Faculty for many years.
Therefore the Faculty has been active
in the European programme for edu-
cation and student mobility, ERAS-
MUS, from its early days in the late
1980s. Until to-day the Office,
through the ERASMUS project and
other intemational programmes, has
achieved that more than 15% of the
veterinary students spent a period of
their study abroad.

-nbsp;The role played by the Office in the
support and co-ordination of training
programmes and technical collabora-
tion programmes with faculties in
tropical countries, is very well illus-

Dr Paling congratulates
Dr Schukken with the award
for \'the most dedicated and ap-
preciated faculty staff member
in intemational affairs\' (Photo:
Otter)

- Last but not least I like to mention
the role which the Office for Intema-
tional Cooperation plays in the policy
development of the Faculty. A stra-
tegy document, prepared by the Of-
fice on \'Perspectives for Intemational
Cooperation. Stmcturing of the inter-
national relations of the Faculty of
Veterinaiy Medicine (1995-2005)\'
was accepted by the Faculty Council
in 1995 and is one of the comer
stones of the Faculty policy for the
next decade\'.

Following Prof. De Vries, Prof.
Voorma, the Rector Magnificus took
the floor to congratulate the Faculty
with the celebration of the 10 year an-
niversary of its intemational office.
Although Prof. Voorma was only re-
cently appointed in his position as
Rector, he could already stress the im-
portance of such an intemational office
for the faculty itself as well as for the
University. He indicated that, although
at the beginning the central administra-
tion had been a bit afraid of loosing
\'business\' if the faculties started their
own international offices, soon it was
realised that this was a good develop-
ment. As the intemational activities
expanded, it became clear that these
could only be handled through close
cooperation between the faculties and
the central Office for Intemational Re-
lations. The Office for Intemational
Cooperation of the Faculty of Veteri-
nary Medicine served as an example for
the other faculties of Utrecht Univer-
sity. Prof Voorma took the occasion to
indicate that the Board of Utrecht Uni-
versity sees it as its task to initiate in-
temational programmes to execute the
policy of Utrecht University and on the
other hand to stimulate and support
initiatives of the faculties. However,
subsequently the faculties should con-
tinue to invest their own financial re-
sources to strengthen their intemational
position in education and research.

As Dean of Veterinary Science
of the University of Zimbabwe,
Prof. Obwolo receives the
award for the \'most appreciated
intemational partner institute\'
from Prof Voorma (Photo:
Otter)

After all these serious talks it became
time for a joyful event when Dr. Paling
took the floor to announce that the cele-
brating office was going to give away 3
rewards with a price to be spent on an
\'intemational activity\'.

The most dedicated and appreciated
faculty staff member in international
affairs

\'First I like to annoimce the winner of
the award for the most dedicated and
appreciated faculty staff member in
intemational affairs. The winner of this
award will receive an intemational cer-
tificate of the Faculty and an amount of
fl. 1000,- to be spent on intemational
travel.

Development of a stmctured post gra-
duate intemational study programme is
these days a must for a faculty that
wants to be recognised as one of the
best in Europe. There is one staff mem-
ber, Dr. Ynte Hein Schukken, who re-
alised this at an eariy stage and he
started to develop the first Master of
Science course at the Faculty in 1992.
After a trial and error run a stmctured
course on \'Veterinary Epidemiology
and Herd Health\' was developed. The
course attracted 6 participants in 1994
an even 15 in 1996. With dedication
Dr. Schukken guides his students
through the course. However, he never

gives in to the quality standards, that
have been set for the programme. His
initiative has been the example for 3
more MSc courses, which have been
developed at the faculty since.\'

\'Next is the award and prize for a veter-
inary student of this faculty who did a
successflil intemational traineeship.
The winner of this award will receive
an intemational certificate of the Fac-
ulty and an amount of fl. 500,- to be
spent on intemational travel.
We formulated 3 criteria;

-nbsp;The student should have made a use-
ful contribution to his/her own veteri-
nary training

-nbsp;During the stay at the sister faculty,
he or she should also have contrib-
uted something of substantial educa-
tional relevance to the host institute

-nbsp;And he or she should be a respected
intemational representative of our
faculty

Hundreds of students did a traineeship
over the years. However, soon it was
clear that one student conformed very
well to our criteria. After a traineeship
on Bonaire on goat reproduction, Jür-
gen Weimers requested again to get an
opportunity to go abroad to a tropical
coimtry. As he stated in his motivation
for a fellowship: \'I want to make sure
that I am capable to work in a de-
veloping country\'.

Jürgen was open to any suggestion and
departed in May this year for a 4
months traineeship at the Faculty of
Veterinary Science in Zimbabwe. He
worked there, together with the staff,
under the supervision of Prof Arie
Brand and produced a student hand-
book on \'Applied nutrition for dairy
cattle\', based on intemational literature
and adapted to the local conditions. His
contribution was not only the handbook
that will serve for the practical training
of veterinary students in animal nutri-
tion in the future, but he also partici-
pated as an instmctor in the first train-
ing. There is no doubt that, the winner
of this award, Jürgen Weimers, is capa-
ble to work successfully in a developing
country\'.

\'The third and last award, which is an
intemational certificate and an amount
of fl. 1500,- is for a veterinary faculty
that has distinguished itself as a many-
sided partner for collaborative activi-
ties. hivolving all the departments of
the Utrecht faculty, involving staff ex-
change for academic as well as techni-
cal staff, involving collaboration in ed-
ucation and research, and a both-way
student exchange programme.
The Utrecht faculty had and has close
contacts with a number of sister facul-
ties on all continents, like the faculties
in Thailand in Asia, in Costa Rica in
Latin America and Maputo in Africa.

The reception was a good occa-
sion for people to meet old
friends and to glance the posters
(Photo: Otter)

However, with none of these faculties,
the contacts were so many-sided and
over such a long period as with the Fac-
ulty of Veterinary Science of the Uni-
versity of Zimbabwe in Harare\'.

The Dean, Prof Mark Obwolo, re-
ceived the price of fl. 1500, out of the
hands of Prof Voorma. He thanked the
Utrecht Faculty for its support and
friendship shown over a period of more
than 10 years and indicated that the
price will be used for the preparations
of a big conference in Harare in 1998.

In Mozambique small ruminant re-
search started in the 1950\'s, but un-
fortunately few results were published.
The principal objective in this period
was to characterise the native breeds.
During 1982 to 1987, the focus of re-
search was on livestock disease diag-
nosis and control. An epidemiological
survey in the southern parts of the
cotmtry revealed that pneumonia was
the most frequent cause of death. Dis-
tinct central nervous symptoms were
frequently seen: subsequent research
made it apparent that heartwater and
toxoplasmosis were the most important
causes. In general, livestock produc-
tion in Mozambique is unthrifty be-
cause of constraints like malnutrition,
gastro-intestinal parasites and respi-
ratory and central nervous diseases.

Priorities for research were established
in 1988 to determine and quantify the
unknown causes of disease and mor-
tality in semi-extensive and extensive
management conditions. Studies on
bacterial infections, respiratory dis-
eases, toxoplasmosis, plant intoxica-
tion, and mineral deficiencies were
done almost entirely in the southern
parts of Mozambique.

The current survey was only carried
out in the north-western province of
Tete. There were a number of good
reasons for this. The largest goat
populations can be found in this part
of the country. An abattoir survey
could be conducted at the slaughter-
house in Tete, which was probably the
only place in the country where this
was possible. No work of any signifi-
cance has been done on the causes of
central nervous disorders in Tete
Province. Lastly, there were indica-
tions that parasitological conditions
such as coenuriosis were highly
prevalent. The survey was carried out
with the assistance and participation of
the provincial governmental veterinary
authorities.

In 1985 a collaboration programme was established between the Veterinary Fac-
ulty of the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique and the Fac-
ulty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University, the Netherlands (see also
EQUATOR vol. 9, no I). Within the framework of the programme an emphasis
was laid on research of problems and diseases impairing the productivity of
goats. From June to September 1997, Daan Vink, veterinary student and one of
the editors of EQUATOR, performed a survey on central nervous disorders in
goats. Coenuriosis was one of the diseases studied.

Little information is available on the
situation with respect to coenuriosis in
Mozambique. The disease was diag-
nosed and found to contribute signifi-
cantly to mortality subsequent to re-
stocking of goats from Tete Province
to Inhambane Province. In Tete Prov-
ince, smallholder farmers in the family
sector are familiar with a disease
which causes circling and neurological
symptoms in goats and claim that it
causes large losses; they also state that
the incidence of this disease is higher
in certain areas than in others. How-
ever, although the provincial veteri-
nary authorities suspect that coenurio-
sis (partly) accounts for this, no sur-
vey on its prevalence, incidence and
geographical distribution had been
carried out.

Aetiology and life-cycle. The disease,
often known as quot;gidquot;, is caused by the
metacestode or bladder worm Coenu-
rus cerebralis, which is the encysted
larval stage of the cestode Taenia
multiceps. The adult tapeworm is
found in the dog and wild canids. It is
found in the small intestine, where it
can reach a length of 40 to 100 cm. It
does not typically cause any symptoms
in this host. The mature proglottid
segments pass out with the faeces, af-
ter which the eggs are liberated and are
distributed throughout the environ-
ment. These eggs consist of an embryo
or onchosphere and a thick, tough cov-
ering envelope which prevents the
desiccation and inactivation of the on-
chosphere in the environment. The life
cycle is an indirect one, with sheep and
goats acting as intermediate hosts.

After ingestion of the eggs, the gastric
and intestinal juices digest the embryo
and the onchosphere is activated. It
penetrates thé gastric and intestinal
mucosa and passes into the blood and
lymphatic circulation. The on-
chosphere of Taenia multiceps has a
specific affinity for nervous tissue and
eventually lodges in two predilection
sites - the brain or spinal cord. Here it
develops into the metacestode. This is
a fluid-filled cyst containing clusters of
numerous invaginated scolices at-
tached to its inner wall. The cyst takes
about eight months to mature, during
which time it becomes progressively
larger as the volume of fluid increases.
At maturity it can reach a diameter of
five cm or more. In the goat the cyst
may incidentally develop intramuscu-
larly and subcutaneously as well. The
cysts can be found in different loca-
tions in the brain: the left and right
hemispheres, the median fissure, the
cerebellum, and the brain stem. They
may be located superficially (under the
meninges) or deeper within the brain
tissue. Superficial cysts may cause
palpable rarefaction of the cranial
bones.

Symptoms. Typically, the course of
the disease is chronic, progressive and
fatal. Clinical neurological symptoms
develop as a result of increased intra-
cranial pressure due to the cysts. As
the localisation and depth of these are
quite variable, there are no character-
istic presenting signs. The clinical
syndrome frequently includes circling,
incoordination, a high-stepping gait
and blindness.

Diagnosis. Diagnosis is based on
clinical appearance, neurological ex-
amination, exploritative surgery or
postmortem examination. No reliable
serological test is available and hae-
matology (i.e. white blood cell count)
results lie within the normal range of
values. An intradermal gid test can be
performed, but this is not very reliable.
As the presenting signs are so variable,
knowledge of the endemic status and
local epidemiological situation are
helpfiil in making a presumptive diag-
nosis.

Therapy. The only treatment possible
is by surgical removal of the cyst or by
aspiration of cyst fluid through the
softened skull. This treatment is sel-
dom performed. No drug therapy is
available.

Prevention. Prophylactically, regular
deworming of dogs (e.g. with
praziquantel) is advised. Other pre-
ventive measures include destroying
the cysts at slaughter, separating dogs
and livestock, and not feeding dogs
offal.

Epidemiological aspects. The distri-
bution of the disease is world-wide; in
Africa the disease has been reported in
Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, An-
gola, Congo (Zaire), Senegal and
Southem Africa. A limited amount of
data is available on the prevalence of
the disease in different areas.

During the period from June to Sep-
tember, 1997, 130 goats offered for
slaughter at the abattoir in Tete were
clinically inspected and a post-mortem
examination was performed. Prior to
slaughter, a general physical inspec-
tion was carried out. The age, sex and
condition (i.e. body score) were also
noted.

After slaughter, the cranium of each
goat was opened with a broad-bladed
chisel and a mallet. The meninges were
incised and the brain was exposed.
Subsequently, the brain was gently
lifted out of the cerebral cavity. A lon-
gitudinal mcision was made between
the left and right hemispheres (in the
median fissure), and then both hemi-
spheres were dissected transversally.
After this, the cerebellum was brought
forward and incised, and finally the
brain stem was inspected. We esti-
mated that using this method, all cysts
with a diameter larger than about Wi
cm would have been identified. The
location and diameter were noted for
all the cysts found.

Nervous symptoms were observed in
five goats, two of which were slaugh-
tered. Both these goats had Coenurus
cysts in the brains. Symptoms were
quite variable: circling, lateral devia-
tion of the head and head tilt, abnor-
mal correction reflexes especially in
the hind legs (while sensory perception
appeared normal), hypermetria, de-
pression or conversely hyperaesthesia
(loud bleating, excitation), horizontal
nystagmus in one case, muscle trem-
ors. This variability is typical of coen-
uriosis.

We found cysts in the brains of 24
goats; this corresponds to a prevalence
of roughly 18.5%. 15 of the cysts (i.e.
62.5%) were located in the left hemi-
sphere. 7 cysts were located in the

right hemisphere, and 2 in the median
fissure. The diameter of the cysts
ranged from less than 1 cm to 8 cm.
Also, muscle cysts were identified in
18 goats.

It is striking that almost all of the
goats carrying cysts did not show ob-
vious nervous symptoms, although the
cysts sometimes measured more than 5
cm in diameter. The fact that no
symptoms of any kind were identified
in infected goats makes it unlikely that
there is a significant abattoir bias, i.e.
that only animals in worse condition
are sold for slaughter, as a result of
which the determined prevalence there-
fore appears higher than the true
prevalence. It is unclear why the ma-
jority of the cysts should settle in the
left hemisphere. Farmers were familiar
with neurological symptoms (which
they mostly associated with circling,
head tilt and lateral deviation, depres-
sion and hyperaesthesia), whether as a
result of coenuriosis or otherwise.
They indicated that it is a significant
cause of mortality. An interesting de-
tail is that I was told by different
farmers that the goats always circle
towards the left. This is however
something I could not verify. It might
possibly correlate with the more fre-
quent localisation of the cysts in the
left hemisphere; in literature, it is
mentioned that circling is in most cases
towards the side of the brain in which
the cyst is located.

The composition of the sampled
population of goats was not represen-
tative. Almost all the goats examined
were male and less than a year old,
often only six months. The reason for
this is that most of the males are sold
for slaughter, as few are needed for
breeding purposes. This makes it diffi-
cult to extrapolate the findings to the
large population of goats in Tete
Province.

The determined prevalence of coenuri-
osis was higher than in any report I
could find (where mention was made
of figures ranging fi-om 5 to 10%). The
number of publications was however
limited, and no data from the
(Southern) African region on the
prevalence could be tracked down. It is
difficult to attach a significance to the
prevalence figure; flirther research is
really required. On the one hand, it
could be expected that the prevalence
in older goats will be, if anything, cu-
mulatively higher. On the other hand,
if this disease causes death among
goats, the prevalence among unaf-
fected goats in the field might actually
be lower. It is also difficult to interpret
the lack of neurological symptoms
among goats carrying (often large)
cysts in their brains - in other words,
the relation between the prevalence
and incidence of coenuriosis. In addi-
tion, we had the impression that the
prevalence varies regionally: on some
days as many as half of the goats ex-
the life cycle of the Taenia
multiceps tapeworm requires
favourable conditions for the
uptake of proglottids and eggs
from the faeces of the dogs by
the goats during browsing
{Photo: Vink)

amined at the slaughterhouse would
have brain cysts, while on other days
none would. Unfortunately it was not
possible to trace the locations of origin
of the goats on those days when many
cysts were found. As the slaughtered
goats originated from many different
parts of the province, the incidence and
prevalence could quite possible vary
from village to village. This impres-
sion was corroborated by reports from
several goat traders and farmers. But
again, this is no more than speculation.
There was also insufficient time to do
an extensive field survey including
questionnaires and farmer interviews
in the different districts, which would
have provided more information on
this.

In order for the prevalence to be this
high, the life cycle of the Taenia mul-
ticeps tapeworm must quite obviously
be effectively maintained. There are
several conditions which are prerequi-
site for this. It requires favourable
conditions for the uptake of proglottids
and eggs from the faeces of the dogs
by the goats during browsing. This
implies a close cohabitation between
goats and dogs, which is undeniably
the case in Tete. Conversely, it re-
quires an effective transmission of the
cysts with the scolices fiquot;om the goats
to the dogs. This initially presented us
with some questions. The goats\' heads
are cooked unopened before consump-
tion and it seems likely that the cysts
are inactivated and destroyed by this
process (although this could not be
tested). So even if the remnants of the
cysts are discarded after cooking and
fed to the dogs as offal, this would not
maintain the cycle. It seems likely that
the life cycle of the Taenia multiceps
worm is maintained by the muscle
cysts, which may well be discarded
from the cadavers to be fed to the
dogs. Information from farmers is nec-
essary to clarify this.

quot;A couple of weeks before the
planned visit I received an e-mail with
a list of the topics I was supposed to
cover. The e-mail also said that I had
to give practicals, without flirther de-
tails. No number of lectures or practi-
cals was given, nor was a time table
included. When studying the rather
extensive list of topics thoroughly, I
soon leamt that opinions about what
exactly belongs to the discipline of
large animal surgery apparently varied
somewhat between different faculties.
Diseases of the liver in cattle and fer-
mentational disorders of the ruminant
forestomachs are not in all places of
the worid thought to be part of the
discipline of surgery. Anyhow, I set
off for Zimbabwe, together with my
wife who accompanied me on this
trip.quot;

In order to acclimatize and to get a bit
more information about the tasks that
were waiting for me, I arrived a few
days before I had to start my lectures.
The Faculty reminded me very much
of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
of the National University of Costa
Rica, where I had been working for
two years in the early nineties. About
the same size with about the same
(20-30) number of students per year.
However, the Zimbabwe Faculty was
of a more recent date and substantially
better equipped then the faculty in
Costa Rica.

The cooperation between the veterinary faculties of Utrecht, Copenhagen and
Harare is a long-standing one. Financed by the EU, the cooperation pro-
gramme has been running for years now and many staff members from Zim-
babwe visited one of their European counterparts and vice versa. This time it
was the turn of Dr. René van Weeren, staff member of the Department of Gen-
eral and Large Animal Surgery of Utrecht University\'s Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine, and editor of EQUATOR. He went for 6 weeks to Zimbabwe to lecture
large animal surgery.

During that first visit I was also told
that there had not been a large animal
surgeon for a long time, and that some
clinical cases were waiting like a five-
legged calf and a ciyptorchid horse.
When inspecting the large animal sur-
gery room I found that it was very
well equipped, but only rarely used.

The students were very eager to learn
something and \'behaved\' very well
compared to their Dutch colleagues.
Their programme, at least that of the
4th year, was overloaded with lec-
tures. Even every Saturday moming
they had 3 lectures. So it was hard to
conceive that they were still able to
pay attention to what I was saying, but
they did.

Their theoretical knowledge was good
and without any doubt comparable to
that of Dutch students, but they lacked
practical experience in the field. This
problem originates partly from the
fact that the case load of large animals
at the Harare Faculty is very low.

The contents of the practicals were at
the discretion of the individual lectur-
ers. I decided to dedicate one of the
practicals to the endoscopy of the na-
sal passages of the horse as I had been
lecturing on equine upper airway dis-
eases. The students appreciated the
topic although it was clear that many
of them were not very acquainted with
horses. Another practical that I or-
ganized was an exploratory laparot-
omy in cattle. This was done on cattle
owned by the Faculty and was there-
fore, in contrast to a comparable prac-
tical training in Utrecht, survival sur-
gery. Fortunately, all animals survived
and even no wound infection was
seen. On that occasion I also discov-
ered that, no matter what is stated on
the bottle, the real expiry time of the
local anaesthetic lidocain is 15 years
or more.

In the meantime my wife, who is a
veterinary graduate from Costa Rica,
had made some friends under the 5th
year students. She could regularly join
the ambulatory clinic. The staff of the
ambulatory clinic normally make vis-
its three days per week, mainly to the
communal lands where the small-scale
farmers live. There, people arrive with
all sorts of animals. From cows to
chickens and often very skinny dogs.
For the visits to the generally poor
people in the communal areas only a

low fee can be charged. Sometimes
people anticipate to this. On one occa-
sion, after extensively treating the
wound of a cow that belonged to an
elderly couple, the old woman thanked
the vet in charge very cordially and
put a coin of 1 Zimbabwe dollar
(about US$ 0.08) in his hand, adding
that he really deserved his pay.
I myself went out with the ambulatory
clinic only a few times as I was too
busy lecturing. On one occasion we
castrated some horses in the field, an-
aesthetizing them with romifidine and
ketamine, which was a good experi-
ence for the students.

A very good initiative at the Harare
Faculty is the presentation of cases or
any other relevant experience in the
veterinary field, by final year students.
All have to present several times in
front of a mixed audience of staff and
students. I really enjoyed these pres-
entations and I think this is a point
where the average Dutch student lags
behind. From time to time staff mem-
bers also gave presentations and both
my colleague Dr. Jan van Nes, who
comes from the Utrecht Department
of Clinical Sciences of Companion
Animals and who was lecturing in
Harare at the same time, and myself
got the opportunity to give a presen-
tation. These activities doubtlessly
lead to a better mutual understanding. \'

I really enjoyed working in Zimbabwe,
being for a couple of weeks a staff
member of the Harare Faculty. It was
nice to go to the senior staff room at
10 am (if you had no lecture at that
time) and to have tea (no coffee of
course, the British influence is still
very evident in Zimbabwe) with a
number of other members of the staff.
The Harare Faculty staff still consist
to a large extent of foreigners, and
interesting discussions may ensue if
you are at the same table with people
from Zimbabwe, India, Uganda,
Kenya and Nigeria. On the other hand,
this is also one of the weaknesses of
the Faculty. More than 10 years after
the start it appears still not possible to
have all undergraduate teaching cov-
ered by the own staff. For this reason,
the short term missions like mine are
still necessary. This was a point of
serious concern for the evaluation
committee that was visiting the Fac-
ulty during part of the period I was in
Harare. The employment of well-
trained and sufficiently qualified staff
should be among the first priorities.
Permanent staff will also attract more
patients to the hospital which are
badly needed for the practical training
of the students.

It was 6 weeks of tough work, but
finally all topics were dealt with and
also the calf got rid of the 5th leg and
the horse of its hidden testicle. Not-
withstanding the work, there was still
some time left to see something of the
splendid natural beauty of the coimtry.
We had a good time in Zimbabwe. I
really hope that the students have
taken some advantage from the lec-
tures and practicals and hope that they
will be successful in the examinations
at the end of the year.
For the Faculty as a whole it would be
nice if forces could be united to make
better use of the excellent facilities.

On 21 May, 1997, Dr. Dominique Martinez defended his PhD thesis entitled \'Anal-
ysis of the immune response of ruminants to Cowdria ruminantium infection.
Development of an inactivated vaccine\' at Utrecht University. Dr. Martinez, a
French veterinarian, has been the head of the laboratory for microbiology of
CIRAD-EMVT in Guadeloupe since 1985. Studies on the development of vaccines
for cowdriosis and dermatophilosis are conducted in this laboratory. For many
years the group of EMVT has been collaborating in the field of cowdriosis re-
search with the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology of the Utrecht
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Presently, CIRAD-EMVT is actively involved in
the EU-Concerted Action Project \' Integrated control of ticks and tick-borne dis-
eases\', which is coordinated by Dr. F. Jongejan of Utrecht University. Thus, it was
not surprising that Dr. Martinez had chosen Utrecht to present and defend his
thesis.

Cowdriosis

Cowdriosis or heartwater is a tick-
bome disease of wild and domestic
ruminants, which is endemic in Sub-
saharan Africa. So far, only ticks of the
genus Amblyomma are known to trans-
mit Cowdria ruminantium. The disease

is also present on several islands of the
Indian Ocean and the Lesser Antilles,
including Guadeloupe Moreover, it
threatens the American mainland.
In the absence of a commercial vaccine
the control of the disease can be
achieved only partially by rearing resis-
tant animals and immunization by in-
fection and treatment. However, these
methods are hardly applicable on a
large scale. Furthermore, cross protec-
tion between stocks is very limited.

The aim of Dr. Martinez\' study was to
try to imderstand immune mechanisms
leading to protection or pathological
changes in animals infected with heart-
water and to develop new methods to
vaccinate domestic rtiminants against
the disease. Methods to evaluate the
extent of diversity among Cowdria iso-
lates were also developed.

The conclusions in the thesis and the 9
pubhcations which described the re-
search work are as follows:

-nbsp;\'We have successfully immunized
ruminants with inactivated preparations
of C. Ruminantium and we have con-
tributed to the understanding of the
protective immune mechanisms thus
opening the way for research on a re-
combinant vaccine.

-nbsp;We have undertaken an evaluation of
the extent of genetic diversity of Cow-
dria both between and within isolates
by developing an RAPD assay and a
method for cloning the parasite\'.

For more information you can consult
the Internet at http://www.ruu.nl/
tropical.ticks or contact Dr. Dominique
Martinez, CIRAD-EMVT, B.P. 515,
97165 Pointe-a-Pitre cedex, Guade-
loupe (French Antilles) (tel. 590.-
255995, fax: 590.940396, e-mail:
martinez@antilles.inra.fr).

THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION
OF INSTITUTIONS OF TROPICAL VETERINARY MEDICINE
(AITVM), HARARE, ZIMBABWE
14-18 SEPTEMBER, 1998

The theme of the 9th Intemational Conference of the Association of Institutions of
Tropical Veterinary Medicine (AITVM) to be held in Harare on 14-18 September,
1998 is \'ANIMAL HEALTH AND PRODUCTION FOR DEVELOPMENT\' and
special attention will be given to rural development, community participation and
the environment.

Day 1 will kick off with introductory
remarks and Official Opening. This
will be followed by key-note speeches
at a plenary session during which the
need for appropriate policies, methods
of approach, monitoring and periodic
evaluation of required activities, per-
taining to each topic will be presented.

Theme of the conference
Most of the human population in
tropical countries are in rural areas
where major resources include livestock
and wildlife. It is important that
livestock productivity is enhanced to
alleviate poverty in these areas and
promote development as well as human
health. Factors which act as constraints
to livestock production include animal
diseases, inadequate nutrition, and lack
of appropriately trained persormel.
Some of the factors such as infectious
diseases spread across political borders
and their control requires concerted
regional approach.

Against this background, the 9th
AITVM Conference will address five
major topics:

Days 2 and 3: Five separate workshops
discussing the different topics will be
held concurrently. Scientific papers will
be presented and discussions will be
held. Major findings and recommenda-
tions will be formulated.
Day 4: Visits e.g. to farms, veterinary
institutions etc.

Day 5 : Presentations of major findings
and recommendations on each topic at
a plenary session. This will be followed
by concluding remarks and Closing
Address.

For information you can contact Pro-
fessor M. J. Obwolo, President of the
AITVM or Dr. S. Mukaratirwa, Chair-
man of Conference Scientific Commit-
tee (Faculty of Veterinary Science, Uni-
versity ofZimbabwe P.O. Box MP167,
Harare, Zimbabwe. Tel.: 263.4-
303211 ext 1437, telefax : 263.4-
333683; 333407, e-mail:
vetscience@esanet.zw; see also in
\'CALENDAR 1997-1998\' elsewhere in
this EQUATOR).

8*\'\' Intemational symposium: Tropical Ani-
mal Health and Production. Theme: \'Aqua-
culture and disease control\'. Organized by
the Committee for the Advancement of
Tropical veterinary Science (CATS) and the
Office for Intemational Cooperation of the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht
University. Registration: Office for Inter-
national Cooperation, Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine. P.O. Box 80.163, 3508 TD
Utrecht (Telefax: 31.30.2531815, e-mail:
bic@bic.dgk.mu.nl).

Intemational Colloquium on the \'Epidemi-
ology and control of bovine theileriosis\'.
Organized by: Institute of Tropical Medi-
cine. Subjects: epidemiology, immunization,
treatment, control programmes and eco-
nomic aspects. Registration fee: Bfr 4,000,
students Bfr 2,000. Registration: Mrs. D.
Van Melle, Institute of Tropical Medicine,
Nationalestraat 155, 2000 Antwerp (Tel.
32.3.2476206, telefax; 32.3.2161431, e-
mail: dvmelle@ itg.be).

22 - 27 February, 1998
Second Pan Commonwealth Veterinary
Conference on \'Animal health and produc-
tion in rural areas\'. Topics: Animal Produc-
tion (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs,
equine, camels, elephants, ostriches, trans-
port and draught animals, embryo transfer);
Animal Hedth (animal health of domestic
and companion animals, emerging and re-
emerging diseases, animal nutrition, vaccine
production) and Veterinary Education
(reciprocity in Commonwealth, assessment,
extension training, continuing education and
distance teaming). Information: Organizing
Secretary, 123, 7th \'B\' Main Road, IV Block
(West), Jayanagar, Bangalore-560011 (Tel.:
91.80646857, fax: 91.806635210,
e-mail: rahman.cva@sm4.sprintrpg.ems.vsnl
.net. in).

29 March - 11 April, 1998
Intemational course on livestock and envi-
ronment interactions. Course programme:

Livestock-environment interactions in the
context of global changes; Analyses of key
indicators for livestock-environment inter-
actions; Assessment of environmental im-
pact for livestock production systems; Policy
instruments. Course fee: Dfl. 5,500. Infor-
mation and registration: Intemational Agri-
cultural Centre (L^iC), P.O. Box 88, 6700
AB Wageningen (Tel.: 31.317.490111,
telefax: 31.317418552.
e-mail: iac(giac.agro.nl).

3 August, 1998 - 30 July, 1999
Degree of Master of Veterinary Studies
(MVS) in Avian Health. Organized by: Fac-
ulty of Veterinary Science, University of
Melbourne. Areas of study: Poultry pathol-
ogy; Infectious causes and serology of poul-
try diseases; Disease, diagnosis, prevention
and control; Poultry production systems and
procedures; Keyboard skills for data han-
dling; Enhanced commimication skills;
Preparation of dissertation. Tuition fee: $A
26,500. Closing date for applications: 31
March, 1998. Infonnation: Dr. Trevor Ba-
gust. Course Coordinator, Faculty of Veteri-
nary Science, University of Melbotmie,
Parkville, Victoria 3052.
(Tel.: 61.3. 93449676, telefax: 61.3.-
93449675, e-mail:

Intemational Congress on Antrax, Bmcel-
losis, CBPP, Mycobacterial diseases and
Clostridial diseases. Organized by: OIE
Regional Collaborating Centre for Africa
with the ARC Onderstepoort Veterinary
Institute. Programme will focus on the fol-
lowing aspects: epidemiology, control,
zoonoses and detection.
CaU for papers and poster abstracts: full text
before 1 May, 1998. Congress venue: The
Conference Centre, Berg-en-Dal rest camp,
Kruger National Park. Fee: before 15 May:
R 1250; after 15 May: R 1500; after 15
June: 1750. Registration: Organising Com-
mittee, Technology Transfer, Onderstepoort
Veterinary Institute, Private Bag X05, On-
derstepoort, 0110, South Africa (Tel:
27.12.5299433, telefax: 27.12.5299143,
e-mail: ria@moon.ovi.ac.za).

16 August - 20 November, 1998
26quot;^ International course on dairy farming in
mral 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. 5,500. Closing
date: 1 May, 1998. Information and regis-
tration: Interaational Agricultural Centre
(L^C), P.O. Box 88, 6700 AB Wageningen
(Tel.: 31.317.490111, telefax: 31.317
418552, e-mail iac@iac.agro.nl).

24 August, 1998 - 25 February, 1999
28\'\'\' Interaational course on poultry husban-
dry and 28quot;* Intemational course on pig hus-
bandry.. Organized by: PC Livestock Inter-
national, Bameveld College. These courses
will mn at the same time. Following these
courses participation is possible in the 21®\'
Intemational animal feed training pro-
gramme (AFTP), which runs from I March
to 27 May, 1999. Direct entry in this last
course is ^o 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, 1998. Information: IPC Live-
stock Bameveld College, Dep. of Interna-
tional Studies and Cooperation Programmes,
P.O. Box 64, 3770 AB Bameveld (Tel.:
31.342.414881, telefax: 31.342.492813,
e-mail: io@ipcdier.hacom.nl).

1 September, 1998- 31 August, 2000
Intemational MSc programme of the Gradu-
ate School of Animal Health, Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine Utrecht University and
ID-DLO Institute for Animal Science and
Health, Lelystad. MSc Course \'Veterinary
Epidemiology and Herd Health\' (fee: Dfl.
20,000); MSc Course \'Animal Pathology\'
(fee: Dfl. 35,000); MSc Course \'Modem
Approaches in Veterinary Microbiology and
Immunology\'(fee: Dfl. 68,500). Registra-
tion before 1 August, 1998. Information:
Office for Intemational Cooperation, Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine. P.O. Box 80.163,
3508 TD Utrecht (Telefax: 31.30.253-
1815, e-mail: bic@bic.dgk.ruu.nl).

10-12 September, 1998
Veterinary Pathology Symposium. Orga-
nized by: Southern and Eastern Africa Divi-
sion of the C.L. Davis DVM Foundation.
Information: Prof M.J. Obwolo, Faculty of
Veterinary Science, University of Zim-
babwe, P.O. Box M.P. 167, Mount Pleas-
ant, Harare (Tel. 263.4.303211, telefax;
263.4.333683,

14-18 September, 1998
IX International Conference of the Asso-
ciation of Institutions of Tropical Veterinary
Medicine (AITVM): \'Animal health and
Production for Sustainable Development\'.
Organized by: Faculty of Veterinary Sci-
ence, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box
MP 167, Harare. Location: Intemational
Conference Centre, Harare. Registration;
Prof M.J. Obwolo, Faculty of Veterinaiy
Science, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box
M.P. 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare (Tel.
263.4.303211, telefax: 263.4.333683, e-
mail: vetscience@esanetzw). For more
information see elsewhere in this EQUA-
TOR.

October, 1998 - October, 1999
MSc Course on Wild Animal Health for
graduates in veterinary and relevant sci-
ences. Including: practical and theoretical
instmction in the husbandry and nutrition of
wild animals, taxonomy, population biology,
conservation genetics, welfare and ethical
aspects, epidemiology, immtmology, infec-
tious and non-infectious diseases, disease
investigation, restraint, preventive medicine
and surgery and an individual research proj-
ect. Organized by: The Institute of Zoology
(Zoological Society of London) and The
Royal Veterinary CoUege (University of
London). Information and registration:
Registrar, The Royal Veterinary College,
Royal College Street, London NWl OTU
(Tel. 44.171- 4685000, telefax: 44-
.171.3882342).

16-22 October, 1998
Joint meeting of the World Association of
WUdlife Veterinarians (WAWV), the
American Association of Zoo Veterinarians
(AAZV) and the Canadian Association of
Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians (CAZWV).
Holiday Convention Centre, Omaha, hifor-
mation: Dr. Wilbur Amand, President
WAWV, 6 North Pemiel Road (Lima), Me-
dia PA 19063, USA.

Febmary, 1999 - Januai^, 2000
Degree of Master of Veterinary Studies
(MVS) in Health and Production of Small
Ruminants. Organized by: Faculty of Vet-
erinary Science, University of Melbourne.
Areas of study: Parasitology; Gross and
histopathology; Reproduction; Advanced
sheep management; hitroductory surgery
and field visits.Tuition fee: $A 26,500.
Closing date for applications: 30 September,
1998. Infonnation: Dr. Trevor Bagust,
Course Coordinator, Faculty of Veterinary
Science, University of Moulboume,
Parkville, Victoria 3052 (Tel.:
61.3.93449676, telefax: 61.3.93449675,
e-mail: