AUSTRALIA–INDONESIA JOINT SYMPOSIUM IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Jakarta, 13-17 September 2006
Foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza: status and diagnostic capability
Dr Jef Hammond, Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO, Livestock Industries, Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Geelong, Victoria
AAHL is Australia's national laboratory responsible for the diagnosis and surveillance of transboundary animal diseases and emergency disease outbreaks, including zoonoses. AAHL maintains Australia's capability for rapid and accurate diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and avian influenza (AI), and many other exotic diseases, in Australian livestock and wildlife as well as maintaining a laboratory testing surge capacity.
FMD is one of the most economically devastating diseases known, and its importance is increasing globally. As human populations grow and international movement of people and livestock products increases, so the risk of virus spread intensifies.
The ongoing epidemic of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has involved many countries in the ASEAN region and in North Asia, causing a high level of international concern because of the number of human cases and a high case fatality rate. It is feared that mutations in the current HPAI 'H5N1' virus, or reassortment of this virus with any contagious influenza strain circulating separately in the human population, may result in a pandemic of human influenza with large mortalities.
Rapid and accurate diagnosis of these two high profile diseases is the key to effective response and control strategies and more accurate mapping and prediction of disease spread. The current status of FMD and HPAI in the region and the state of preparedness both in Australia and the Indonesian laboratory network will be discussed in the context of Australia-Indonesia collaboration.
Dr Jef Hammond is the Australian coordinator of a global collaborative project promoting a new generation of control measures for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD). Dr Hammond is a virologist with expertise in developing recombinant vaccines and investigating immune responses to viral diseases. He is currently involved in the development of novel vaccines and diagnostic tools for a variety of viral diseases of livestock. Dr Hammond began his career at the Institute for Animal Health (IAH), Pirbright, Laboratory in the United Kingdom and has been at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) since 1994. He has published many scientific papers, invited reviews and book chapters, is the inventor of two patents and made numerous national and international conference presentations.
