Panel Discussion and Roundtable

Richard Kock

Royal Veterinary College

Richard Kock is a wildlife veterinary ecologist, infectious disease researcher and conservationist. He has worked in the field of wildlife health and disease since 1983 with a focus on African and South Asian ecosystems, 28 years attached to the Zoological Society of London. In January 2011 he took up a chair in Wildlife Health and Emerging Diseases at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. He was seconded to the Kenya Wildlife Services 1990-1998 and to the African Union IBAR in Nairobi 1998-2006. Much of his work is on disease ecological perspectives at the livestock - wildlife interface throughout Africa. In 2001 he identified the last outbreak of rinderpest virus globally (affecting buffalo). This led to control of the last focus of virus and its eradication. He also worked and published on the unusual distemper epidemics affecting lion in the Serengeti Mara ecosystems over a decade. He was awarded an FAO international medal in recognition of his work on morbilliviruses. In 2006 he returned to the UK to work on regional conservation projects in deserts and rangelands with a wildlife health and ecology perspective, including work in Nepal, India, East Africa and Central Asia. At RVC, he is working on saiga antelope die-offs in Kazakhstan, wildlife disease, ecohealth and infectious disease initiatives in Africa. He has provided a strong voluntary input into the conservation of biodiversity, serving as a committee member of the IUCN SSC committee 2004-2008 and as co-chair of the IUCN SSC Wildlife Health Specialist Group 2004-present.

Felix Lankester

Serengeti Health Initiative, Washington State University

Dr. Felix Lankester holds a primary appointment as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health (Washington State University), and a secondary appointment as the Country Director of the Serengeti Health Initiative. Since 2009 he has been based full-time in northern Tanzania where he has been carrying out research into the control of canine rabies (he is currently the Principle Investigator on a B&MGF Grand Challenges project to investigate the cost – effectiveness of integrating mass dog rabies vaccination with mass drug administration against soil-transmitted helminthes). Additionally he has recently completed his PhD research (University of Glasgow) in to the efficacy of a novel vaccine strategy against malignant catarrhal fever. During these studies he carried out the first quantification of the economic impact that MCF, and its avoidance, has on pastoralist livelihoods. Dr. Lankester is also a post-graduate mentor at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (Arusha, Tanzania) and the Veterinary Director of the Pandrillus Foundation, a conservation organization working in western – central Africa to conserve great apes.

Samuel Mwangi Thumbi

Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State Univeristy

Thumbi Mwangi, a Kenyan Veterinarian and an infectious disease epidemiologist, holds a Clinical Assistant Professor position at the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health- Washington State University and the Kenya Medical Research Institute. He holds a degree in Veterinary Medicine and Masters of Science degree in Genetics and Animal Breeding from the University of Nairobi, and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Edinburgh, UK. His research focuses on co-infection dynamics and their impact on host health and survival, and the linkages between animal health and human health. Specifically, he investigates and quantifies the zoonotic, socio-economic and nutritional pathways that relate animal health to human health using a joint human-animal health surveillance system in Western Kenya. He is a recipient of the Bill & Melinda Gates Grand Exploration Award, a Wellcome Trust Fellowship in Public Health and Tropical Medicine to work on neglected zoonotic diseases with a focus on rabies elimination in Kenya, and a Global Health New Voices Fellowship from the Aspen Institute, US. In addition he has received the 2015 Scientific Achievement Award from the International Society for Disease Surveillance for his research on bio-surveillance, and is the 2015 Veterinarian of the Year (Research Category) awarded by the Kenya Veterinary Association.

Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka

Conservation Through Public Health

Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of a 12-year-old NGO and non-profit, called Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) that promotes biodiversity conservation by enabling people, wildlife and livestock to coexist through improving their health and livelihoods in and around protected areas in Africa. CTPH implements and champions One Health approaches to conservation with field programs at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park - home to the critically endangered mountain gorillas, Queen Elizabeth National Park and expanding to Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve and Mount Elgon National Park in eastern Uganda. CTPH is a member of the Uganda National Disease Taskforce and Gladys recently served on a technical advisory committee to establish a National Institute of Public Health for Uganda. After completing her first degree at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 1996, she established Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA)’s first veterinary department. In 2000, she went on to do a Zoological Medicine Residency and Master in Specialized Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina Zoological Park and North Carolina State University, where masters research on disease issues at the human/wildlife/livestock interface led her to found CTPH in 2003. In 2007, Gladys became an Ashoka Fellow for leading social entrepreneurs for merging Uganda’s wildlife management and rural public health programs to create common resources for both people and animals.She has served on the Boards of Uganda Wildlife Authority; Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, The Gorilla Organization and Wildlife Clubs of Uganda.

James DeMartini

Colorado State University

Dr. James DeMartini is an ACVP board certified Veterinary Pathologist. He graduated with DVM and PhD degrees from the University of California Davis and was employed as a professor for 31 years in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. His PhD research and subsequent studies while on sabbatical leave in Kenya involved East Coast fever, a tick-borne disease of cattle caused by the protozoan parasite, Theileria parva. Most of his career involved research on detection, pathogenesis, and control of viral diseases of ruminants, particularly retroviral infections of small ruminants (maedi-visna and ovine pulmonary carcinoma) and a herpesviral disease of cattle (malignant catarrhal fever). Together with other veterinary scientists he has also studied several diseases of sheep, cattle alpaca, and wildlife in Peru and Kenya. Research in his laboratory was funded by the US Agency for International Development, the US National Institutes of Health and US Department of Agriculture grants, among others. Over the years, many DVM/PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and research associates were engaged in the research.

Abstract

In two panel sessions and a roundtable discussion, historical, currently used, and novel strategies for minimizing disease impact within the ecosystem will be considered. Panelists will describe and compare use of such... [ view full abstract ]

Authors

  1. Richard Kock (Royal Veterinary College)
  2. Felix Lankester (Serengeti Health Initiative, Washington State University)
  3. Samuel Mwangi Thumbi (Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State Univeristy)
  4. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka (Conservation Through Public Health)
  5. James DeMartini (Colorado State University)

Session

OS-D1 » Minimizing the Impact of Disease within the Ecosystem II: Historical and Novel Interventions to Control Disease (08:30 - Tuesday, 12th January, Kirinyaga 1)

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