Proposal for a veterinary presidium to support public authority in responding to catastrophic events in the Italian context.

The ultimate goal of any disaster response, or a natural or a man­made event, is to get the best outcome for the highest number of people. From a veterinary point of view, the best outcome includes either the protection of animals (conventional and unconventional pets) or the safeguarding the wholesomeness of food supplies in the "One Health" perspective. The evolution of the Italian veterinary role in disaster management has changed across the last 35 years and has grown with the awareness that animals and human beings share the same vulnerability to disasters. The University of Teramo, following its experiences in different disaster scenarios, proposes a veterinary presidium to support Public Authority in responding to catastrophic events in the Italian context, in order to rescue small, large and unconventional animals. The proposed veterinary presidium is made up of 3 skilled people certified to react to different population needs. Indeed we propose different teams to rescue small, large or non­conventional animal, trained to work together in a stress situation and under coordination of the Civil Protection Function 2. This presidium with its 3 different skilled teams under the supervision of the advanced veterinary medical center (AVMC) and by reporting to it will provide the best competences based on the needs of the population and the authorities, in view of the "One Health" perspective.

Neglected zoonotic diseases in Nigeria: role of the public health veterinarian.

Zoonotic diseases accounts for about 75% of emerging infectious disease and can be devastating to both human and animal health globally. A subset of zoonotic diseases is referred to as "neglected zoonotic diseases - NZDs" as they mainly affect poor populations who live in close proximity to domestic or wild animals often in areas where access to health and adequate sanitary facilities are not available. Furthermore, underestimation of the burden of NZD has continually led to its further neglect in least developed countries such as Nigeria. Controlling zoonotic infections including NZDs in animals is crucial in reducing human infections. Veterinarians provides an understanding of the epidemiology of infectious diseases in animal population and are therefore integral for the overall reduction in global burden of NZDs worldwide. Due to the current lack of and in some cases weak involvement of Veterinarians in policy issues related to zoonotic diseases, there is need to elucidate their importance in NZDs control in Nigeria. This review therefore summarises the neglected zoonotic diseases so far documented in Nigeria and also highlight the important role of the Veterinarian in their prevention and control within both human and animal population. Important recommendations to strengthen the role of the public health Veterinarian for sustainable control of NZDs were made.

The future and the vet profession.

One of the biggest challenges facing the veterinary profession is being able to provide affordable health care while better rewarding those that provide that care. Here, Lord Trees argues that delegation of responsibilities and embracing technology are two solutions to this problem.

Modelling farm-to-farm disease transmission through personnel movements: from visits to contacts, and back.

Infectious diseases in livestock can be transmitted through fomites: objects able to convey infectious agents. Between-farm spread of infections through fomites is mostly due to indirect contacts generated by on-farm visits of personnel that can carry pathogens on their clothes, equipment, or vehicles. However, data on farm visitors are often difficult to obtain because of the heterogeneity of their nature and privacy issues. Thus, models simulating disease spread between farms usually rely on strong assumptions about the contribution of indirect contacts on infection spread. By using data on veterinarian on-farm visits in a dairy farm system, we built a simple simulation model to assess the role of indirect contacts on epidemic dynamics compared to cattle movements (i.e. direct contacts). We showed that including in the simulation model only specific subsets of the information available on indirect contacts could lead to outputs widely different from those obtained with the full-information model. Then, we provided a simple preferential attachment algorithm based on the probability to observe consecutive on-farm visits from the same operator that allows overcoming the information gaps. Our results suggest the importance of detailed data and a deeper understanding of visit dynamics for the prevention and control of livestock diseases.

Vets drive CPD in Scotland.

The CPD provider, VET Trust, was set up by a group of vets nearly 25 years ago with the aim of making CPD accessible to vets and veterinary nurses in Scotland. Kathleen Robertson reports on the Trust's aims and its newest CPD prize.