The Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases (DVTD) of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria has been working in close cooperation with the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, Belgium for several years now: a formal Institutional Strengthening Grant (2003-2007) has been in place since 2003; the PRINT tender (2007-2009) was awarded to ITM in collaboration with the DVTD; and workshops and other activities have taken place over the last few years.

As the Institutional Strengthening Grant ends in 2007 and the report of the Evaluation Committee was extremely positive, the DVTD was invited to submit an application for funding for a further 6 years (2008-2013). After the first submission, the DVTD was informed that € 1,200,000 for the first 3 years had been approved for the project. The project aims at establishing an institutional collaboration between the DVTD and the ITM’s Animal Health Department.

Through this collaboration the capacity and capability of the DVTD, and its regional partners, to support the control of the main endemic parasitic diseases of livestock (trypanosomosis, tick-borne diseases and helminthosis) and endemic zoonoses (tuberculosis, brucellosis, trypanosomosis and cysticercosis) in subsistence livestock production systems in the SADC Region, will be strengthened. The duration of the project is 6 years and 10 PhD and 16 MSc students will be supported by the project.

The project coordinators for the partnership between the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases and the ITM in Antwerp are from left to right: Prof Koos Coetzer, Head of the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Ms Minette van Zyl from the same Department and Prof Peter van den Bosche from the ITM in Antwerp.

Enquiries: Prof Koos Coetzer

Tel: (012) 529 8269

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