Research News

EVIW 2024: Building capacity in animal immunology key to One Health success

  • 12 September, 2024

 

This September, Dublin was the chosen location for the tri-annual European Veterinary Immunology Workshop (EVIW 2024), a member-led event for the European Veterinary Immunology Group (EVIG) and various stakeholders in veterinary medicine and science, immunology, agriculture, public health and policy.  

EVIG is a veterinary specialist group under the auspices of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS). Since 2001, EVIG has been a platform for communication and exchange between veterinary immunology researchers from all corners of Europe. Since the global covid pandemic, the need for a collective approach to tackling infectious disease became a driving force for researchers and practitioners in this field and beyond.

In that spirit, One Health was the lens of this year’s conference, which took place from 4-6 September at Dublin’s Crown Plaza Hotel. The theme of EVIW 2024 was ‘Working Together’, across continents, across specialties, across infectious agents and across species.

The conference attracted 186 delegates from 26 countries, with prominent speakers including Professor Alison Van Eenennaam from UC Davis, Professor Delia Grace Randolph from University of Greenwich, and Professor Cliona O’ Farrelly from Trinity College Dublin. There was also a strong focus on training workshops for students and young researchers to enable real knowledge transfer, as well as a commercial focus in training delivered through EVIW industry partners.

The packed schedule included seven keynote lectures and almost 60 talks in parallel chaired sessions covering a vast range of topics including infection and immunity,  mucosal immunity and vaccination, the future and One Health, comparative immunology, immunogenetics and genomics, and immune models and emerging technologies. See the full programme of talks and speakers at eviw2024.org/programme.

The conference was organised by Dr Kieran Meade, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, and colleagues from UCD, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland's Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and Teagasc. He said: "On a global level, capacity building in animal immunology is critical for safeguarding agriculture, the food chain and human health. However, there is also an opportunity here for Ireland as nationally we have leading expertise in human immunology, so leveraging this expertise to advance training and expertise in the immunology of livestock holds exciting potential and should not be missed – particularly in the context of veterinary education and following the recent announcement of two new veterinary schools."

UCD alumnus, epidemiologist and food safety expert Professor Delia Grace Randolf delivered the first keynote talk on ‘The multiple burdens of zoonoses in low- and -middle income countries (LMICs): why zoonoses are worse for the poor.’ She argued that investment and innovation is urgently needed to tackle zoonoses in developing countries where they currently impose massive burdens on human, animal and ecosystem health. People in LMICs have greater exposure to zoonoses through livestock keeping; living in agricultural communities; interactions with peri-domestic and wild animals; less access to clean water; and, greater vulnerability to climate shocks.

Reinforcing the need for urgent collective action, at the closing session, Professor Grace Randolf said: “Emerging infectious diseases are the one of the existential threats to humanity, up there with meteor strike and nuclear war – and they’re not going away. They are emerging with greater and faster frequency as we put more and more pressure on our natural environments.”

Read more from Professor Grace Randolf and EVIW colleagues in The Irish Times:

Professor Alison Van Eenennaam’s keynote talk on ‘Gene editing opportunities for livestock disease,’ underscored the need for collective approaches to policy and regulation affecting animal production, the burden of, and often misunderstanding around which has inhibited the advancement of gene editing for disease resistance. Speaking in the closing session, she said: “Misinformation around agriculture and agricultural science can have a devastating impact…I personally think this is the greatest challenge we face.”

Hear Professor Van Eenennaam on RTE’s Countrywide:

Dr Caroline Garvan, Senior Superintendent Veterinary Inspector at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) spoke of how regulators and policy makers are moving very quickly into the One Health space, highlighting the Irish One Health National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance.

She said: “We have established at a national level a One Health oversight committee that is cross-departmental, cross-agency and all-island, that is going to monitor and advise on One Health threats with a view to protecting public health, advancing public health intelligence, particularly with regard to emerging zoonotic diseases. It will also have specific focus on influenza, antimicrobial resistance, and also environmental aspects such as climate change and food security.”

Dr Garvan also cited the Quadripartite (FAO, UNEP, WHO and WOAH) One Health Global Action Plan on international cooperation to prevent future pandemics and to promote health sustainably through the One Health approach. She said: “Having seen policy briefs, in relation to the six actions in that plan, it very much emphasises the value of veterinary services. I think it’s important that the audience here hears that.”

Also on the closing session panel, UCD’s Professor Grace Mulcahy (pictured left with session chair Dr Simon Doherty, Prof Delia Grace Randolf, Dr Caroline Garvan and Professor Alison Van Eenennaam) aligned with that view and stressed the role of vets in the protection of public and environmental health as well as in public debate and education. “Veterinary medicine and vets working with companion animals and wildlife are very important. I think we’re going to need a lot more of those in the future in terms of protecting our ecosystems. I think this is an area that has been grossly neglected in veterinary education – but they’re going to be much more common in the future.” She said: “If you think about explaining to the general public about the vaccination regime for your dog or cat, that’s another way of educating the public”.

Professor Mulcahy also highlighted the importance of science communication. “One of our biggest responsibilities as a community is science communication and trustworthy communication. In this age of social media and misinformation/disinformation, it’s really hard for the general public to tell fact from fiction on any topic, be it GMOs or anything else – from the positive to deliberate malicious disinformation.”

She said: “We must be proud of what’s been achieved, but we must not close our minds to really big picture problems that meet at the impasse of how to feed the planet and also to protect the environment. For instance, we must consider solutions such as the alternative protein industry, which could have an impact too. We have to be open to all possible solutions, not just the ones we work on, and communicate about them honestly and proactively to the public and policymakers as well.”

Dr Gerald Barry from UCD School of Veterinary Medicine and UCD’s One Health theme lead introduced the new UCD One Health Centre which is working to provide solutions to diseases and other global health challenges, as well as developing and facilitating strategies to implement One Health. The centre has a comprehensive range of activities including research, education and training, community engagement and outreach, policy and advocacy, and building capacity and partnerships.  

Learn more about the European Veterinary Immunology Workshop at eviw2024.org