During this first episode we hear from John Atkinson of MSD Animal Health and Lea Knopf of the WHO of their experiences at the recent Rabies in the Americas conference. We also discuss some of the possible impacts of the spread of African Swine Fever.

In this episode we talk to Kasia Bankowska about her experiences at the recent Global Foot and Mouth Research Alliance meeting in Bangkok, we hear from Keith Sumption of the EuFMD about their upcoming Vaccine Security meeting, and Anthony Chadwick of Webinar Vet about the rabies focus in the upcoming Virtual Congress.

As we enter into 2020 I talk about some of the things happening in emerging and transboundary diseases, and the hope for big steps forward in controlling them.

John Atkinson and Alasdair King talk about their experience at the recent EuFMD Vaccine Security meeting, we interview Polly Compston about her PhD in Kenya looking at motivators for FMD vaccination, and we announce the first recipients of the Rabies Hero Awards.

A chat with Jef Hammond about FMD in Africa and his role as consultant for the AgResults FMD Vaccine Challenge. We do go down a bit of a rabbit hole getting distracted by other things "FMD" but pull it back on topic.

A discussion with Dr Matthew Stone, Deputy Director General International Standards and Science at the OIE, World Health Organisation for Animal Health, about the impact of COVID19 on the animal health industry.

As a bonus episode this is longer than normal. https://msd.doblem.net/msd20200406

Links to OIE sites mentioned during the podcast

OIE Q&A on COVID19

Joint OIE-WVA statement on COVID19

EBO-SURSY portal

And the webinar from the MSD Animal Health swine team: COVID19 A Veterinary Perspective

Where we discuss a rabies project in India with two MSD employees who went out there in 2019 to assist as part of an MSD Fellowship program, and we learn about how it impacted their lives as well as their ideas for sustainable rabies control.

Link to the SAARC Rabies Webinar: https://rr-asia.oie.int/en/events/saarc-rabies-webinar/

In this episode we talk to Daniel Stewart, an animal behaviourist, to hear how understanding dog behaviour is important in the battle to control rabies. We also talk to John Atkinson about the new and updated emergence website (https://www.emergence-msd-animal-health.com).

Acronyms mentioned during the podcast:

GARC - Global Alliance for Rabies Control

PRP - Partners in Rabies Protection

PARACON - Pan-African Rabies Control Network