Animal Determinants of Emerging Diseases
On April 15th, the national teleconference seminar series on Animal Determinants of Emerging Diseases finished its 11th season. Highlights of the year included presentations on the emerging zoonotic tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis, determinants of animal abundance in a Ugandan rainforest, enhanced rabies surveillance in Alaska, and findings from the Vancouver Rat Project (see “ADED rounds” at the Centre for Coastal Health website for a complete list of topics for this and earlier years). As in previous years, the seminars drew participants from across Canada and the United States, (see map below) and across the full spectrum of human and animal health fields.
ADED seminars are a Canada-wide forum for networking and collaboration between animal and human health professionals from a diverse array of organizations, interests and professions. The business model is cheap and effective: Participants download presentation slides from a website and listen to the presentation by telephone. There are opportunities to pose questions to the speakers and to join in a general discussion. At some locations, several people gather in a seminar room and participate as a small group. Each seminar is limited to one hour. The total number of participants in the past year was 192; at any particular seminar, participant numbers range from 15 to 50.
This seminar series was originally funded by the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. It has been continued with support from the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Ministry of Agriculture of British Columbia and the CWHC. We hope to continue the series in 2014-15, starting in September. To find out more, visit the ADED website.