Med-Vet-Net News

Links

New link to the website of the WildTech project.

Get the latest Med-Vet-Net Newsletter!

Med-Vet-Net People

Birgitte Borck - Deputy Workpackage Leader 24
Simone Caccio - Workpackage 22 Leader
Alexandra Fetsch - Deputy Workpackage Leader 23
Tine Hald - Workpackage Leader 28
Maarten Nauta - Workpackage Leader 24
Simone Caccio - Workpackage 22 Leader
Alexandra Fetsch - Deputy Workpackage Leader 23
Susanna Lukinmaa - Workpackage Leader 4
Trudy Wassenaar - Assistant Project Manager
Jean-Charles Cavitte - EC Project Officer for Med-Vet-Net
Steen Ehelberg - WP6 Leader
Martin Rubeck Jepsen - Deputy WP6 Leader

Med-Vet-Net Students

Sara Monteiro Pires - PhD Student Workpackage 28

Association to capitalize

The newly formed Med-Vet-Net Association was officially launched at the October handover meeting with the announcement of the Association�s 10 means of action.

The self-funded Association, which currently comprises all 14 of the Network�s scientific partners, is set to become Med-Vet-Net�s most enduring legacy and will build on the success of its predecessor by strengthening existing partnerships and forging new collaborations both within Europe and around the world.

Indeed the Association has linked its very purpose to continuing Med-Vet-Net�s success through its overarching aim to increase, capitalize and disseminate scientific knowledge on zoonoses with the main emphasis on food-borne zoonoses.

Med-Vet-Net Association

The Med-Vet-Net Association

New report

Med-Vet-Net has drawn the final curtain on five years of EC funding with the launch of its showcase achievements report entitled Building a European�Community to Combat Zoonoses.

The report, unveiled at the handover event on 6 October, details Med‑Vet‑Net�s long list of scientific achievements across the spectrum of its�thematic disciplines from epidemiology and surveillance to risk research�and disease control.

The end of the beginning

I write this with both sadness and excitement. Sadness in that, after five years, Med-Vet-Net as we know it is coming to an end; excitement in that the work and scientific collaborations we started in Med-Vet-Net will not only continue in the Med-Vet-Net Association but hopefully expand and, in due course, encompass new areas, new challenges, new institutes and new personnel along with existing collaborators.

Stakeholder Report

Our final report aimed at stakeholders �Building a European Community to Combat Zoonoses� is now published.

If you would like hard copies of this report, please contact the Communications Unit.

Future Developments

For the last five years the Med-Vet-Net Network of Excellence has been funded under the European Union�s 6th Framework Programme within the Quality and Safety of Food priority area. The Network started�its activities on 1�September 2004, and the closing date for scientific activities is 31�August 2009. This date has now been extended by two months, until 31 October 2009, but without any additional funding.

5th ASM - Orals AR

The first two presentations were dealing with a new emerging resistance gene family called methylases. Methylases are conferring high level resistance to aminoglycosides. Both studies presented were output from WP29.

5th ASM - Orals HPI

Four presentations were made on Host-Pathogen Interactions on Saturday 6 June at 09.30.

5th ASM - Orals RR

The scientific progress made in recent years in the area of risk research was illustrated by the oral session on Friday, which encompassed a variety of topics.

5th ASM - Orals MolEpi

The session was focused on the molecular epidemiology of zoonotic food-borne pathogens. It included four�presentations dealing with Salmonella and Vero cytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC).

5th ASM - Orals Epi

The oral presentations provided the opportunity to learn about recent progress of research in the epidemiology fields, both within and in Med‑Vet‑Net teams and also out of the Network. four�abstracts were�selected out of 27 submitted for the�Epidemiology�Session.

5th ASM - Orals NEZ

The four talks of the session were focused on selected pathogens which are considered to be emerging or prospect a threat for humans, having their reservoir in�either common farmed or wild animals, and the control of which is made difficult by present lack of recognition of their burden, epidemiology and detection procedures.

5th ASM - Orals D&C

The session Detection and Control (1) took place on Wednesday 3rd June 2009. There were 4 presentations.

5th ASM - Orals General

Chairing a session of �General Interest� presentations is�always difficult because of the lack of�a cohesive theme but this in no way detracted from the�pleasure of the variety of topics covered and the quality of the�presentations.

WiREDZ final meeting

WiREDZ (Wildlife Related Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses) reflects the increasing global recognition that wildlife is one of the most potent sources of new and emerging zoonoses in the world today. Recent examples include West Nile fever, Avian Influenza, AIDS, Ebola, rabies, hanta, SARS, Nipah, and monkey pox.

The three-day meeting (10�12 December) attracted 23 delegates from 14 countries across Europe with a particular focus on inviting representatives from countries where the status of wildlife disease surveillance was not well known � Serbia, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Finland, Greece, Spain, Croatia, and the UK.

Project Reports

Med-Vet-Net People

Med-Vet-Net Vice-Chairperson Governing Board Christianne Bruschke