The purpose of our visit to Sri Lanka was to attend the “Annual Scientific Sessions 2018” organized by Sri Lanka Veterinary Association, as well as to strengthen our ongoing international research collaboration.
1. Meeting with the Director General and Director/Livestock Planning and Economics of the Department of Animal Production and Health
We met with Dr. N. Wedasinghe (Director General) and Dr. S.S.P. Silva (Director/Livestock Planning and Economics) of the Department of Animal Production and Health on 13 June 2018. We discussed about the progress and future plan of the ongoing research collaboration.
2. Annual Scientific Sessions 2018 organized by Sri Lanka Veterinary Association on 14 June 2018
Prof. Yokoyama was the theme seminar speaker for the Animal Health Sessions, and the topic was “Tools and strategies for the control of bovine piroplasmosis”. Dr. Sivakumar introduced the recent research findings on new Babesia species infecting cattle in Sri Lanka to the audience under the title “Genetic analysis of Babesia species in bovine clinical babesiosis cases in Sri Lanka”.
3. Visiting Dr. A. Arulkanthan’s Laboratory at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Peradeniya
We visited Dr. Arulkanthan’s Laboratory at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Peradeniya on 15 June 2018, and observed the research works and facilities in his laboratory. We also had a fruitful discussion on initiating research collaboration in near future.
4. Field visit to observe management practices of cattle native to Gampaha district
The cattle in Gampaha district often suffer from clinical babesiosis and theileriosis. On 16 June 2018, we travelled within Gampaha and observed the management practices of cattle native to district, as the management systems have implications for the control of bovine babesiosis and theileriosis.
This study was supported by grants from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JSPS KAKENHI Numbers 26257417 and 16H05033), Open Partnership Joint Projects of the JSPS Bilateral Joint Research Projects, and AMED/JICA Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) project (Grant number 17jm0110006h0005).