OUAVM has been implementing a collaborative research project as a Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) project with funding from the Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). With the project’s completion just around the corner, OUAVM director Noboru Inoue and the project’s principal investigator and National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases professor Naoaki Yokoyama participated in its last studies in Mongolia.
With the Institute of Veterinary Medicine (IVM) of Mongolian University of Life Sciences as the counterpart institution, the project’s members have clarified the distribution of and damage caused by animal protozoan diseases in Mongolia based on large-scale epidemiological studies and developed simple and rapid diagnostic kits. Currently, they are working to help fight animal protozoan diseases and support the livestock industry through the promotion of protozoan disease control measures in society and the development of young experts and a system for the early detection of such diseases.
Director Inoue and Professor Yokoyama visited Provincial Veterinary Office officials and clinical veterinarians in the provinces of Dundgovi and Ömnögovi, both located in southern Mongolia, between April 29 and May 2 to thank them for their cooperation with the project, to explain its outcomes and to exchange opinions about the recent activities. They also collected feedback about the project and the diagnostic kits developed. On May 3, they visited Mr. Namsraijav[A1] , who heads the Mongolian Foundation for Science and Technology (MFST), and asked for his support for the sustained development of the research project implemented by IVM.
Members of the SATREPS project have developed valuable technology and information through various activities, including the development of protozoan disease control guidelines, distribution maps, and diagnostic kits. Feedback from local clinical veterinarians indicated that the project had helped improve livestock hygiene in Mongolia. Since both provinces still have high incidences of equine trypanosomiasis and animal piroplasmosis, interest in the project’s outcomes is genuinely high. Therefore, going forward, OUAVM plans to work with IVM to ask the Mongolian government and provincial governments to support the efforts to implement sustainable diagnostic systems and protozoan disease control measures.
This SATREPS project, which also earned praise from AMED, will be completed in May 2019.
A Mongolian TV program on MNB entitled “Healthy Livestock Is Mongolia’s Wealth” featured piroplasmosis and its vectors, ticks. Click the link below to watch the program (in Mongolian) on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7eZBw6cKbE&t=1s
