Article

3rd Annual Meeting, Turkey 2009

EPIZONE held its 3rd Annual Meeting from 12-15 May 2009 in the sunny tranquil setting of Antalya, Turkey. The conference was organized in close co-operation with SAP, FMD Institute Ankara.

More than 320 participants from 26 countries all over the world attended this meeting; EPIZONE members, members from 10 other (EU) projects, scientists, sponsors and other stakeholders from outside the network. 217 abstracts were submitted, and during the meeting 48 oral presentations were given and 150 poster presentations were set up on the market fair.

As is the case with all EPIZONE meetings, it was multi-focused and covered recent developments, See programme. The abstract book is available on the website as download.

13 May

This international annual meeting, entitled "Crossing Borders", was opened 13th May in the "Welcome session" by Professor Wim van der Poel, Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen UR (CVI), the coordinator of EPIZONE, and  Dr Isabel Minguez Tudela, Scientific Officer EPIZONE, Research Directorate General, Directorate of Biotechnology, Agriculture, Food of the European Commission.

Dr Francisco Javier Reviriego Gordejo, European Commission, Health & Consumers Directorate General (DG SANCO) as special guest delivered a speech entitled: "Transboundary and emerging diseases in context of the new EU Animal Health Strategy". He spoke about the  New EU Animal Health Strategy 2007-2012, introduced in 2007 under the slogan "Prevention is Better than Cure".

Because of the slogan "Crossing Borders" the meeting was focused 1 day, 13th May, on the special topic "emerging and transboundary diseases", such as Bluetongue, West Nile disease, and Avian Influenza which are increasingly becoming a greater threat, particularly within Northern Europe.

Keynote speaker Professor Manfred Stock from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research presented the "Predictions, projections, and perspectives of climate change" in which he carefully described the difficulty of forecasting the exact effect that climate change would have on individual local regions. The afternoon session was opened by Dr Louis Rodriquez with the keynote lecture 'The Role of the Leader Protein of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus as a Virulence Factor'. Unfortunately, Dr Marvin Grubman was not able to attend the meeting but, his colleague, gave the keynote presentation instead. He described the work done with the leader protein (Lpro) of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) by Dr Grubman and his co-workers at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, USA.

14 May

On 14th May there was a morning session on the topic "Epizootic diseases of pig and poultry". The day's first presentation was by keynote speaker Ankara University Professor Aykut Ozkul, 'Life threatening Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever in Turkey: Characteristics, Epidemiology and Future Perspectives'. The presentation contained a detailed description of the epidemiology and ongoing research into the life threatening tick-borne Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever in Turkey.

The afternoon session on "Epizootic diseases of ruminants" started with the keynote speakers Dr. Geneviève Libeau, Centre de coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomiqui pour le Développement, and Ashley Banyard, VLA Weybridge, titled 'Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV): Application of molecular technologies to understanding and controlling the disease' Dr. Libeau described the Lineage 4 PPRV epidemic in Morocco from July to November 2008 and the successful emergency vaccination program which was implemented there. Ashley Banyard was formerly involved on reverse genetics of morbilliviruses at IAH Pirbrigth, in the Tom Barret's group. He  spoke in length of the ongoing research into Rinderpest and the development of effective emergency vaccines.

13 and 14 May                                                           

In addition parallel sessions were held on 13th and 14th of May with oral presentations on the EPIZONE Themes: Diagnostics, Vaccine development, Risk Assessment and Epidemiology and Surveillance.

There was a market fair with the EPIZONE posters, with booths of our sponsors, (EU) projects and a EPIZONE booth. During the meet and greet sessions in the market fair the (EU) projects presented themselves by giving a presentation of their project.

12 and 15 May

On Tuesday 12 May, many EPIZONE work package meetings were held and (EU) project meetings, and there was a Young EPIZONE programme. For the first time we invited other (EU) projects to present themselves and gave them the opportunity to organize meetings. On Friday (15 May) there were 2 open sessions/workshops organized: a GFRA workshop and an ARBO-ZOONET: WNV and CCHFV BTV Epidemiology (IC 6.6).