Collaboration

1. ITM

The ITM (Institute for Tropical Medicine) in Antwerp, Belgium, has been a longstanding partner of the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases (DVTD) at the University of Pretoria. Since the start of the MCP the ITM has provided very important and seed funding for the first research projects aimed at collecting baseline information in the study area. Ever since the onset of the MCP the ITM has continued to fund postgraduate research ranging from neglected and high-impact zoonoses to the use and application of mobile technology for research and disease control at the wildlife/livestock interface. This highly productive partnership is bound to be strengthened going forward with exciting new projects lined up through this partnership.

A group of researchers from the ITM and UP together with local community members
serving as interpreters during baseline questionnaire surveys in Mnisi

2. CIRAD - PCP

As part of our vision to develop the MCP into a prominent One Health platform in this environment, we acknowledge that we need strategic collaborations that are mutually beneficial and complementary. The wildlife/livestock inferface around the GLTFCA is extensive and very heterogenius and similar approaches in other areas around the GLTFCA and other areas in the region could only contribute further to our knowledge and understanding of relevant issues. The MCP has therefore started collaborating with the PCP (Production and Conservation in Partnership) platform initiated and driven by CIRAD, Zimbabwe. The PCP initiative also investigate numerous aspects of the socio-ecological system at the wildlife/livestock interface between the Gonarezhou National Park in southern Zimbabwe and the northern boundary of the Kruger National Park, South Africa. A joint visit to both these study sites were coducted in March 2011 and consequently several collaborative investigations have since been initiated.

The group of researchers from the Faculty of Veterinary Science,
UP and CIRAD – Zimbabwe whom visited both study areas