Animals + Humans = One health

EU Veterinary Week Roadshow

Stop 3: Hanover, Germany
14 November 2008

Visitors checking out the roadshow bus

Day 5 of the Roadshow saw the EU Veterinary Week Roadshow van arrive in Hanover for the “International trends and perspectives in food animal practice” conference, which took place at the Hanover Exhibition Grounds. The event brought together a mix of veterinarians, farmers, government officials and stakeholders to discuss many of the key issues facing veterinarians and animal health policy.

The role of veterinarians
The event started bright and early with a session on “The new EU animal health strategy – what does it mean for the veterinarian?” which featured talks from several experts in the field. First, Bernard Van Goethem, Director for Animal Health and Welfare for DG SANCO, talked about the past, present and future of EU animal health policy. He was followed by Horst Schnellhardt, a Member of the European Parliament, who welcomed the efforts being taken by the Commission, particularly the new Animal Health Strategy entitled “prevention is better than a cure”.

Next up was Bernard Vallat, Director-General of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), speaking about the need for stronger veterinary services so that veterinarians can have a stronger role in ensuring animal health and the prevention of disease. The final speaker of the first session was Tom Humphrey, Professor of infection and immunity at the School of Clinical Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol. Using the examples of salmonella and campylobacter, two bacteria that frequently impact poultry in Europe, he highlighted the clear linkage between human and animal health.

Avoiding an outbreak
The second session of the day focused on “The current aspects of epizootic disease control”. Three experts in the field spoke about their experiences with different animal diseases which have spread rapidly amongst livestock populations and the lessons that can be taken from them.

Franz Conraths, Director of the Institute for Epidemiology at the Friedrich-Loeffer Institute, recounted his experiences with bluetongue. Given the disease’s mutations, there are several strains of bluetongue which farmers and the EU need to be prepared to combat. The pressure is growing as other exotic animal diseases that before were only found in warmer climates spread to the EU. As diseases don’t respect borders, the EU and its farmers need to be ready to face bluetongue and any other animal disease that may impact livestock and ultimately society.

Visitors checking out the roadshow bus

Armin Elbers from the Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen presented the lessons learnt from the outbreak of classical swine fever. In his opinion, to stamp out epizootic diseases, there needs to be a coordinated effort on all levels. Early detection is key to preventing a widespread outbreak of swine fever or another disease and this can only be achieved if farmers are better educated and more aware of the signs and symptoms to look out for.

The final speaker was Volker Moennig, Director of the Department of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover, who discussed the many questions surrounding the use of vaccines to combat animal diseases. Currently Member States do not follow a policy of preemptively vaccinating livestock. This can be attributed to both the cost and concerns about the ability to export vaccinated meat. He also highlighted the fact that there is a lack of communication at international level about vaccination which has led to a lack of trust in the emergency vaccination strategy.

Vaccination – a hot topic
Following the presentations, participants had a chance to ask questions and comment on the presentations. Vaccination was widely discussed and many varying viewpoints were expressed: some people were keen to see vaccination used more often. Some wanted more resources to be invested in developing new and better vaccines. Most agreed that there needed to be better regulation on the use of vaccines. It was a lively debate with contributions from all sides including from veterinarians, farmers and government officials.

Hitting the road…
Before the departure of the van heading to Bulgaria, people had a chance to visit the roadshow van which was set up outside the conference. Many people from the EU’s conference and the larger Euro Tier conference happening at the expo ground at the same time, stopped by the van to watch movies, get information and talk about the EU’s animal health policy.