3rd Int. Conference on Animal Health Surveillance - New Zealand (30 April - 4 May 2017)

3 years after the 2nd ICAHS held in Cuba jointly with the 10th CaribVET SC meeting, New Zealand organized the 3rd ICAHS. The theme of the conference was "“Beyond Animal Health Surveillance”, and intended to further emphasize integration of surveillance in the animal, human and environmental health domains to further integrate One Health approaches into health surveillance. Our colleague, Bryan Sanford (Barbados) participated in the conference and gives us a brief report of his experience there.

Sharing Experience, by Bryan Sanford (Barbados)

I was fortunate to attend ICAHS2 in Havana, Cuba (5-9 May 2014). Having found the conference very beneficial and enlightening, I made sure that ICAHS3 was in my schedule for 2017. There was some budgeting issues which I overcame (first time I ever stayed in a Backpackers Hostel). The theme for this year’s conference was “Beyond Animal Health Surveillance” and focused on the interchange between science, policy and applications.

Presentations included three keynote presenters and approximately 46 oral presentations. Topics included the growing concerns about antimicrobial resistance in human and animal populations, new diagnostic techniques in public health and animal health and managing data.

These presentations are available online. Poster presentations were also available for viewing throughout the conference. The conference was well attended with representatives from around the globe and my only regret is that other representatives from the Caribbean could not attend. I met with a few participants who also attended ICAHS2 and it was heartwarming to find out they remembered CaribVET.

The conference was not without social activities –

ICAHS4 will be held in Copenhagen 2020. I look forward to participating in that one also.

About Bryan

Bryan is amongst the key contributors of the network. Formerly database specialist and technical coordinator for the Caribbean Amblyomma Programme (CAP), Bryan is a Veterinary Inspector for the Veterinary Services, Ministry of Agriculture of Barbados. He is a member of several CaribVET working Groups: Epigroup (dealing with epidemiology and surveillance), Tick and Tick-borne diseases and of the Avian Diseases Working Group. Keen on GIS he’s mentor of a GIS group of trainee “C-VIS team” learning since 2015 to use GIS, Risk mapping and risk-based surveillance in the region.