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Short Course on

Modern Approaches to Disease Surveillance in Veterinary Public Health

Co-ordinators:
Professor Dirk Pfeiffer (Royal Veterinary College, London)
Professor Paul Chan (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Learning Objectives

After completion of both course components, the participants will be able to:

·        understand the principles of surveillance programmes

·        design programmes for conducting risk-based surveillance

·        conduct qualitative risk analysis of animal health problems

·        understand the principles of quantitative risk analysis

·        understand the relationship between risk assessment and surveillance

·        conduct qualitative risk assessments to inform the design of risk-based surveillance programmes

·        produce maps showing the spatial distribution of diseases in the context of surveillance problems or specific epidemiological investigations

·        perform exploratory spatial analyses for investigating disease clustering

·        understand the principles of modelling of spatial data

Content

The course is modular, consisting of two components: (1) Modern approaches to surveillance in veterinary public health and (2) Advanced modelling techniques in veterinary public health. It can be taken as a whole or just one of the two components. The course will be provided on the basis of a combination of lectures and practical sessions.

Participants will gain the knowledge and skills to design national surveillance programmes tailored to current food safety, zoonotic and animal health issues. Qualitative as well as quantitative risk analysis will be taught. The participants will work through a series of case studies based on animal health and food safety problem scenarios. The use of spatial analysis for disease surveillance and investigation of animal health problems will be introduced, and hands-on tutorials will be provided.

Participants

It is anticipated to enrol about 20-30 participants. The participants are expected to have a basic understanding of animal health and an interest in the quantitative aspects of epidemiology. Tuition will be in English, and participants are therefore required to have a good comprehension of written and spoken English.

Date and Venue

February 25 – March 6, 2008

Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong SAR

Delivery

The course will be run over a period of 9 days and will involve contributions from 5 lecturers. It consists to 50% of lectures and 50% of hands-on exercises.

Lecturers

Dirk Pfeiffer – Dr.med.vet., PhD, MACVSc, DipECVPH

Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology, The Royal Veterinary College, and Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, both University of London. Worked in New Zealand, Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. Directed and taught courses in advanced epidemiological techniques in many countries around the world, and has taught 7 international spatial analyses courses since 1998. Involved with teaching international risk analysis courses in 1996 and 1997 in Switzerland, and directed an international course in Denmark in 2000, and two courses for the UK government in 2004. Coordinates and conducts risk assessments for the European Food Safety Authority.

Katharina Stärk – Dr.med.vet., PhD, DipECVPH, MRCVS

Professor of Veterinary Public Health, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London. Worked in Switzerland, Denmark, New Zealand, Japan and the UK. Taught courses in risk analysis and surveillance in Switzerland, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand and England. Previously responsible for the design and implementation of national animal health and food safety surveillance programmes in Switzerland. Past Member of OIE working groups on surveillance issues and risk assessor on behalf of the European Food Safety Authority.

Barbara Wieland – Dr.med.vet., PhD

Lecturer in Veterinary Epidemiology, Co-Director for the MSc course in Control of Infectious Diseases in Animals, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London. Worked in Switzerland, Norway and the UK. Taught courses on introduction in epidemiology, risk analysis and GIS during FAO AI-surveillance workshops in Tunisia and Rwanda, and risk analysis in France.

Javier Guitian – BVetMed, PhD

Senior Lecturer in Population Medicine, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London. Worked in Spain, USA, Canada, Brazil, Portugal and UK. Delivered training in epidemiology, spatial analysis and surveillance in Spain, UK, Thailand, China, Croatia and Egypt, conducted consultancies on spatial epidemiology and surveillance for FAO and participated in expert committees of the European Food Safety Authority.

Colin Howard – DSc, PhD, FRCPath, FIBiol

Vice-Principal and Professor of Microbiology, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London. A virologist with over 35 years of experience in the teaching of human and animal virology. Has organised and run short courses in Argentina, Venezuela, Columbia, Egypt and China. Previously a full professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, he has acted as an Adviser to the World Health Organisation and currently serves on the UK Government Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens.

Cost

The course fee for component 1 (week 1) will be £750 per person, and for Component 2 (week 2) it will be £500 per person. If both Components are being taken the total cost will be £1100 per person. The fee will cover course attendance, morning tea, buffet lunch, afternoon tea, as well as handout material, but no accommodation and transport to the course venue.

Registration

Participants should contact Mrs. Hayley Semprini for registration details or further information:

E-mail: hsemprini@rvc.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (20) 7691 2068
Fax: +44 (20) 7419 5983
Postal address: The Royal Veterinary College, Royal College Street, London, NW1 0TU, United Kingdom

Early registration is encouraged to guarantee a place on the course, and will have to be received by January 31, 2008.

Course Programme

Week 1: February 25 - 29, 2008

Week 2: March 3-6, 2008