Professor Peter Spradbrow of the Department of Veterinary Pathology and Anatomy, University of Queensland has been supervising the research of thermostable Newcastle disease vaccines for over two decades. For some of that time I have been in a position to assist with his research. He projects a vision that has received both acclaim and financial support. He anticipates developing countries producing a wet thermostable Newcastle disease vaccine in both central and regional laboratories and then using this vaccine for vaccination programmes targetting village chickens. The task is acknowledged as enormous. The parallel workshops focussing on training for extension and laboratory workers serves well as a platform to start building the most important resource, an enthusiastic and committed team of people to produce and distribute the vaccine. In collaboration with Professor Spradbrow, I have previously convened three practical training workshops in Africa, in South Africa, Tanzania and Ghana. This fourth workshop was funded by the FAO Technical Cooperation Project, TCP/MYA/6611 and focussed on the skills required to produce and test the thermostable I2 vaccine in Myanmar.
Participants in the workshop were all veterinarians from central and regional laboratories, the Veterinary Medicine Plant and the Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science. A list of participants has been provided in the annex.
