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Eritrea is one of the countries in Africa struggling with rabies. To help eliminate this devastating disease, Johann Kotzé, MSD Animal Health, assists WOAH in developing control strategy to support the country’s journey towards a rabies-free future.

African swine fever (ASF) is present in more than 50 countries on five continents and is without doubt the biggest challenge that the global swine sector currently faces with threequarters of the world swine population living in an affected area.

Back in 2008, Morocco saw its first outbreak of PPR affecting herds of great importance to the Maghreb region. In addition to sanitary measures, vaccination has been indispensable for the success of the efforts to stop the spread of disease in the Moroccan territory.

Rabies is a terrible disease that continues to kill adults and children in many parts of the world. However, the tools and knowledge to stop this disease already exist with the vaccination of dogs with high quality vaccines being the cornerstone to successful rabies elimination. Achieving this means that resources must be used effectively within […]

COVID-19 is not the first and won’t be the last zoonosis Tackling the human health consequences of diseases that originate in animals is not a new problem. Long before the global COVID-19 crisis, efforts were being made globally to fight zoonotic diseases. One of the oldest known zoonoses is rabies, which has a uniquely high […]

The implementation of effective biosecurity policies across the food chain has become increasingly vital to control the spread of livestock diseases and ensure the wellbeing of animals and humans alike around the world. The main prerequisite for such policies is livestock identification, as this enables the tracking and monitoring of all livestock movement over their […]

Almost 100% of rabies deaths in people are due to dog bites, but most of these are preventable. I’ve been working with dogs since I was a young boy and have made animals and their welfare my lifelong passion. I have a diploma in animal behaviour and have worked with dogs in over 20 countries […]

Summary Uncontrolled livestock movements in East Africa are often implicated in infectious disease transmission and spread. Here we present current perspectives on why such movements are essential and difficult to restrict, particularly in poor settings where people’s livelihoods are dependent on livestock production. We also discuss how an understanding of livestock movement dynamics can be […]

Rabies is a lethal encephalitis due to a lyssavirus mainly transmitted to humans by the bite or scratches of terrestrial carnivores (principally domestic dogs).

Almost 15 years ago, when I graduated as a veterinary surgeon, I never envisioned that I would be researching within infectious diseases… I was going to be a large animal practitioner!