Inside
RIFT VALLEY
FEVER
FOOT AND
MOUTH DISEASE
AFRICAN
SWINE FEVER (ASF)
BLUETONGUE
RINDERPEST
NEWCASTLE
DISEASE
TADINFO CONTRIBUTIONS FROM FAO REFERENCE LABORATORIES AND COLLABORATING CENTRES FAO/OIE World reference laboratory for FMD and Rinderpest, Pirbright, UK Training courses at the Institute of Animal Health, Pirbright, Epidemiology Division Modular training for industry programme
News@RADISCON
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THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE TO A VETERINARIANThe World Food Prize - often described as the Nobel prize for food research - has been awarded to a scientist whose work has helped save farmers worldwide from starvation and economic ruin. British veterinary researcher Dr Walter Plowright developed a vaccine against rinderpest, the most lethal of cattle diseases. Thanks to Dr Plowright work, this disease is now largely under control and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is aiming to eradicate it entirely by the year 2010. |
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RIFT VALLEY FEVERNASA scientists use satellite images to help track a disease and keep it under control (NASA Press release 99-81). Using weather satellites to spot the early signs of an El Nino, scientists may be able to help save East Africans and their livestock from Rift Valley Fever, a mosquito-borne disease that can be fatal to humans and animals. NASA and Department of Defense researchers have determined that rising sea-surface temperatures in the western equatorial Indian Ocean, combined with an El Nino in the Pacific, can lead to abnormally heavy rains in East Africa. These rains create a favorable habitat for the mosquitoes that carry the Rift Valley Fever virus, spreading it to humans and animals. Researchers at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, and the Department of Defense-Global Disease Infections System, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC, studied nearly five decades of data to produce these findings. According to their report in the July 16 issue of the journal Science, satellite data can help predict Rift Valley Fever outbreaks up to six months in advance. |
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