Gadvasu

NATIONAL CONGRESS OF VETERINARY PARASITOLOGY INAUGURATES AT GADVASU

February 3

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The XIX National Congress of Veterinary Parasitology under the aegis of Indian Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (IAAVP) being organized by the Department of Veterinary parasitology, College of Veterinary Science, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana was inaugurated today on February 03,   2009 at Pal Auditorium, Ludhiana. 150 delegates from all over India and abroad registered for this conference. The theme of the conference is “National Impact of Parasitic Diseases on Livestock Health and Production” with focus on “Changing Trends in Parasitology from Eggs to Genomics”.

            Dr P N Bhat, a renowned scientist , Former DDG (Animal Science) ICAR, Chairman, Task Force on Animal Biotechnology, DBT, New Delhi and Chairman, World Buffalo Trust  was the chief guest who inaugurated the congress while, Dr V K Taneja, Vice-Chancellor, GADVASU will preside over the function. The event started with the invocation and welcome of dignitaries. Dr. Simrat Sagar Singh, Dean College of Veterinary Science, welcomed the delegates, guests and participants. He highlighted the role parasitologists in diagnosis and controls the parasitic diseases for enhancement of livestock productivity to make farmers economically sound. The report of the society was presented by Dr P. D. Juyal, General Secretary, IAAVP. This was followed by Award presenting ceremony. On this occasion, a compendium of abstracts to be presented during the conference alongwith CD, a compilation of the department al activities since inception and current volume of the Journal of Veterinary Parasitology was released by the chief guest Dr. P N Bhat. Four retired Professors of the alumni of the Department of Veterinary Parasitology, College of Veterinary Science GADVASU were honoured for their dedication towards teaching , research and their significant contributions in the field of Veterinary Parasitology.

          Society admitted two scientists of eminence, Prof M.B Chhabra , New Delhi and Dr P.K.Sanyal from Chhattisgarh  as National fellows.

Dr K M L Pathak, President IAAVP and Director, National Research Centre on Camel , Bikaner addressed the gathering. He highlighted the progress being made in the field of Veterinary Parasitology in India in recent years. At the same time he also appraised some of the problems which have not been adequately addressed. He described the parasites as covert and insidious in undermining the health and productivity of animals through widespread morbidity which in the long run impacts the livestock economy adversely. He said that basic sciences of molecular biology, genetics and immunology have contributed a lot to the knowledge pool of parasitology. We should develop suitable technology- transfer channels and strengthen our extension wing so that the fruits of our research may reach the ultimate beneficiary viz the livestock farmers.

Dr. P.N. Bhat highlighted the impact of parasitic diseases on national economy. He said that despite the immense progress made with drugs, vaccines, and simple measures of public health and sanitation against infectious diseases in the past 100 years, these diseases still impose intolerable burden on half of the humanity. He said the era of the "omics" is with parasitology, and changing trends in the discipline are addressing fundamental biological problems. This can obviously become the "golden age of molecular parasitology," leading to the control of parasitic diseases that have plagued man and his animals since antiquity. Sophisticated new tools such as microarray technologies has provided better understanding of the interactions between host response and parasite virulence factors.

Dr Sarman Singh from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi delivered the Key note address on “Microscopy to Microarray techniques in parasitic diseases at the conference. He said that with the application of microarrays help us in understanding simultaneously the expression of thousands of genes in a single sample put on a single solid support. It is also now possible to compare expression of genes in two different cell types, different stage of life cycle or in two tissue samples, such as in healthy and diseased ones. Thus microarrays are beginning to dominate other conventional and molecular diagnostic technologies. The microarrays have largely been applied for bacterial and viral agents. Application of microarrays is new for parasites. He compared the convention techniques with microarrays and described  microarrays  as providing a novel tool for diagnosis, prognosis, and clinical management of infectious disease.

 Dr Taneja exhorted the veterinary parasitologists to address  emerging challenges in the form of drug resistance, emerging and re-emerging food borne zoonoses, transboundary diseases, food safety, vector control and vaccine development. Dr. P.D. Juyal, Organizing Secretary, XIX NCVP proposed the vote of thanks.

     

 

 

 

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