School of Public Health & Zoonoses, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana is organizing a five day International Workshop on “Disease prioritization and risk analysis” from 08 to 12 February, 2016. The workshop will be held in collaboration with The University of Sydney and Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia, issupported by the Australian Government through the Australia-India Council of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.Dr. AS Nanda, Vice-Chancellor, congratulated School of Public Health & Zoonoses, GADVASU for this endeavour.
Dr JPS Gill, the Organising Secretary and Director School of Public Health & Zoonoses informed that during this workshop, Professor Michael Ward, Chair Veterinary Public Health, Dr Navneet Dhand, Associate Professor in Veterinary Epidemiology and Dr Victoria Brookes, Postdoctoral Research Associate from The University of Sydney, Australia and Dr Marta Hernandez-Jover, Senior Lecturer from Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia will train workshop participants in approaches for disease prioritisation and conducting risk analyses. This international workshop is being organised as a part of an Australia-India Council funded project for development of effective animal disease control programs in India.
Dr Gill explained that disease prioritisation is a key area of need for India. Like other developing countries, we have limited resources and have to prioritise where to spend these resources. Currently this is done quite subjectively based on expert opinion and reports from ground staff but objective evaluation is rarely undertaken due to lack of expertise among veterinarians in conducting these analyses. This training will fill this gap and enable our veterinarians in conducting these analyses on their own for efficient allocation of resources.
Dr BBS Dhaliwal, Co Principal Investigator of this international research project is coordinating this workshop. It is worth mentioning here that GADVASU had signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” with The University of Sydney last year for collaborative research and for facilitating exchange of faculty and students. This workshop will further strengthen this relationship and enable development of stronger ties between the two premier institutions. This workshop is the third in a series of four workshops planned after this agreement for training in cutting edge technology to GADVASU scientists for improving animal and public health in the state.
