EcoZD project fosters transdisciplinary collaboration on zoonotic diseases in Southeast Asia

As a part of the Ecosystem Approaches to the Better Management of Zoonotic Emerging Infectious Diseases in Southeast Asia (EcoZD) project, the Vietnam EcoZD team recently held a sequence of training sessions with strategic project partners. These partners are providing on-the-ground assistance with biological sampling of swine and humans, as well as household surveying, in a concerted effort to better understand the prevalence and risk factors of Leptospirosis within the country.

In keeping with a key tenet of the EcoZD project – greater transdisciplinary collaboration – the sessions were jointly facilitated by team members representing the Department of Animal Health, Nong Lam University and the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City. Together, these agencies combine animal and human health expertise.

Attended by slaughterhouse workers, para-veterinarians and community health workers from each commune, the EcoZD team used the sessions to introduce the project, and in particular the methods and procedures that will be adopted in drawing biological samples.

The results of the fieldwork from Vietnam and the other five EcoZD country project teams will be published in early 2013.