Inside

RIFT VALLEY FEVER
Predicting Rift Valley fever
Rift Valley fever in Eastern Africa. Chief Veterinary Officers (CVOS) workshop TCP/RAF/8821

FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE
FMD in Panay Island, the Philippines

AFRICAN SWINE FEVER (ASF)
ASF in Botswana

BLUETONGUE
Bluetongue emergency in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece

RINDERPEST
Food prize for cattle saviour (extract from BBC news)
Presentation of the 1999 World Food Prize Laureate

NEWCASTLE DISEASE
Electronic discussion on Newcastle disease in migratory birds and criteria for Newcastle disease diagnosis

TADINFO
TADinfo workshop in Accra
TADinfousers onthe increase
How do I get TADinfo?
What does TADinfo do?
User comments on 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
Sheep pox situation in the Maghreb
FMD situation in the Maghreb

EMPRES ADDRESS LIST
FAO Regional Officers
Joint FAO/IAEA Division
RADISCON ADDRESS LIST

THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE TO A VETERINARIAN

The 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.

RIFT VALLEY FEVER

NASA 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 NASA’s 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.