The College of Animal Biotechnology, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) organized two days training course on ‘Emerging bacterial infections of canine with special reference to leptospirosis’. The training was a part of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, Canine Research Centre and Networks program that is running across India. Dr Yashpal Singh Malik, Dean elaborated about this training’s aim to strengthen human resource in the field of biotechnological advances in diagnosis and managing emerging bacterial infections. College is running a on
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‘Establishment of a Laboratory for Diagnosis of Leptospirosis’ where leads have been taken to identify, isolate and characterize Leptospira, a zoonotic bacterial infection that transmits to humans from animal hosts including dogs. In India, a very few laboratories are having the facility to detect this bacterial pathogen that is known to cause hepatic, renal and reproductive problems in animals.
Dr J.P.S Gill, Director of Research, who is the coordinator of this program informed about the research projects being run at GADVASU and thanked DBT for creating laboratory facility for leptospirosis at GADVASU.
Dr. Praveen Malik, Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Govt. of India, in his inaugural address stressed that zoonotic diseases especially leptospirosis are global challenging problems and more emphasis should be given on canine research along with other species of livestock.
Eminent subject specialists from different national institutes like Dr V Balamurugan from ICAR-NIVEDI, Bengaluru, Dr Murugkar from National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal; Dr RK Agrawal from IVRI, Izatnagar; Dr B Ganesh from National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai; Dr Rajesh Vaid from NCVTC Hisar, Dr Ajit Shewale from NCDC, Delhi and Dr AK Arora & Dr Simranpreet Kaur from GADVASU, delivered their expert lectures to about 80 trainee participants from 18 states of India. Trainees were apprised about the different aspects of emerging zoonotic infections of dogs, biosafety practices, prevention and control of leptospirosis. Dr Satparkash Singh, the organizing secretary and PI of the research project, emphasized on practical aspects of culture isolation, diagnosis and bio-safety practices in handling of Leptospira.
Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor of the University, congratulated the organizing team. He emphasized that capacity building in diagnosis and prevention of infections in dogs using advanced state-of-art methods is need of the hour.
