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LinkTADs
Linking Epidemiology and Laboratory Research on Transboundary Animal Diseases and Zoonoses in EU and China

Short Visits and Exchanges

In order to bring together interested European and Chinese scholars, researchers and other stakeholders in order to deepen the knowledge about each other´s organizations, LinkTADs organized six short-term academic visits and three exchange programmes between European and Chinese institutions to serve as a base for establishing further collaboration activities.

Main achievements

  • Built a bridge for Chinese and European scientists to exchange and improve the knowledge and techniques on EIDs and TADs.
  • Trained young scientists and promoted friendship between Chinese and European young scientists.
  • Established a base for further collaborations and project applications on EIDs and TADs between Chinese and European scientists.
  • Specialized research activities on particular animal diseases such as JEV, ASFV and PRDC.
  • Improved the management of EIDs and TADs and strengthened the collaborations between Chinese and European epidemiologists in the long term.

 

Short-term academic visits

  • Short-term visit: CAHEC to RVC (D7.2)
    • From 6-30 May 2014 RVC hosted an academic visit by Dr Kang Jingli of CAHEC to help deepen knowledge about each other’s organisations and facilitate Kang Jingli’s training in epidemiological techniques for animal health management. Specific aims for Kang Jingli were to learn about animal health information systems, database management, animal disease surveillance, outbreak investigation and risk analysis, as well as discuss interesting programmes for possible collaborations in the future.
  • Short-term visit: RVC to CAHEC (D7.3)
    • Between 6-14 April 2015 three researchers form RVC visited CAHEC in Qingdao. The specific objectives were to contribute to the LinkTADs epidemiology workshop organized by CAHEC, visit the CAHEC laboratory and exchange research interests with scientists from CAHEC, and to assist CAHEC and RVC to deliver the PETFV training.
  • Short-term visit: CIRAD to SHVRI (D7.4)
    • Between 4-12 September 2015 two scientists from CIRAD visited SHVRI to participate in the kick-off meeting of the JEV project “Eco-epidemiology and Risk Analysis of Genotype Shift of Japanese Encephalitis Virus in Pigs and Mosquitoes” and laboratory experiments.  The purposes of the short-term visit were to discuss the strategic and operational issues linked to the JEV project implementation, participate in sample collection from pig farms, train Chinese young scientists and students in epidemiology, and identify potential future collaborations.
  • Short-term visit: FAO to CAHEC and CADC (D7.5)
    • From 2-7 August 2015 two representatives from FAO visited CAHEC, CADC, SPI and Veterinary Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing. The specific objectives, which were all related to ASF, included discussing current ASF status, ongoing ASF global initiatives and potential collaborations, to discuss the ASF contingency plan currently being finalized for China, to discuss the participation at the then upcoming meetings in Vienna, and lastly to discuss on-going and future activities of LinkTADs with the Advisory Board member
  • Additional short-term visit: CIRAD to SHVRI
    • Between 6-13 April 2016 Dr. Julien Cappelle from CIRAD visited SHVRI. The purpose of this visit was to finalize the experiment protocol of the JEV project “Eco-epidemiology and Risk Analysis of Genotype Shift of Japanese Encephalitis Virus in Pigs and Mosquitoes” and to participate in the sample collection from pig farms.
  • Additional short-term visit: SVA to SHVRI
    • From 19-24 June 2016 Dr. Frederik Widén and Dr. Lihong Liu from SVA visited SHVRI.  The goals of this visit were to exchange progress on porcine respiratory disease complex (PRDC), discuss the potential of a grant application between SVA and SHVRI, and to set up the plan of preparation for a grant application.

Laboratory and epidemiology work

  • Exchange programme between HVRI and SVA (D7.7)
    • Organised by Dr. Hua-ji Qiu of HVRI, the programme ran from 24-30 June and 18-31 October 2014 and concerned the sharing and exchange of technologies in development of novel diagnoses.  Dr. Lihong Liu was invited to visit HVRI where he demonstrated his portable real-time PCR in Dr. Hua-Ji Qiu's lab, exchanged the research progress, and discussed the possible collaborations between HVRI and SVA. Dr. Yuzi Luo from HVRI then visited where he evaluated several diagnostic assays for CSF and ASF developed in HVRI, and also visited the labs and facilities of SVA.
  • Exchange programme between SHVRI and SVA (D7.8)
    • Organised by Zhiyong Ma of SHVRI, the programme ran from 19-23 July and 21-25 September 2015 and covered collaboration on emerging swine diseases.  Two scientists from SVA and one from CReSA first visited SHVRI in July before two young scientists from SHVRI visited SVA in September. The objectives were to participate in the kick-off meeting of the JEV project, to exchange knowledge and research projects on emerging swine diseases, to discuss the establishment of a joint-laboratory of animal infectious diseases, and to identify potential collaborations.
  • Exchange programme among CIRAD, RVC and CAHEC (D7.9)
    • Organised by Dr. Julien Cappelle of CIRAD, the programme ran from July 2015 to October 2016 over several visits.  The topic of interest was collaboration in epidemiology by twinning LinkTADs and RiskSur projects.  The first trip included RVC and CIRAD scientists visiting CAHEC and participating in the field epidemiology training and risk surveillance workshop in Qingdao. This was followed by a CAHEC scientist participating in the final RISKSUR meeting in Paris later that year.  Visit 3 involved CIRAD and RVC scientists again traveling to Qingdao, this time in April 2016 to meet with CAHEC scientists where they participated in analytical epidemiology training. The final visit of the programme included both CAHEC and CADC Fudan university scientists meeting with a CIRAD scientist in Bangkok during the advanced epidemiology training of the InterRisk Masters Programme.  This programme included two modules, one on basic epidemiology and biostatistics (7 to 18 March 2016) and another advanced set of modules at the end of the year (19-30 September 2016; 03-14 October 2016).