Two experts of the Field Building Leadership Initiative (FBLI) delivered reports at an ecohealth symposium of the Asia-Pacific region in a bid to present their latest research results and strengthen ecohealth in Southeast Asia.
Dr. Nguyen Viet Hung, FBLI Coordinator, and Dang Xuan Sinh, researcher at the Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER) of Hanoi School of Public Health, the FBLI partner in Vietnam, attended the fourth Food Safety and Zoonoses Symposium for Asia Pacific in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Aug. 3-5. The second Regional EcoHealth Symposium was one of the food safety and zoonoses symposium’s two major events.
At the symposium, Dr. Nguyen Viet Hung delivered the keynote speech “EcoHealth Research in South East Asia: Regional Synthesis and Examples from Key Programs.” The report reviews ecohealth activities in Southeast Asia in the past decade and provides an insight into the challenges and the way forward for ecohealth in the region.
Dr. Hung also works as the Country Representative for Vietnam of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which co-organized the symposium.
Researcher Dang Xuan Sinh presented three papers including “Hygiene and Microbial Contamination along the Pork Value Chain in Vietnam,” which looks into health risk related to pork consumption in the country. The other two reports were “Perceptions and practices related to pork production chain in Hung Yen province, Vietnam” and “Antibiotic Residues and Heavy Metals in Pork at Wet Markets in Vietnam.”
FBLI Coordinator Nguyen Viet Hung (third from left) and researcher Dang Xuan Sinh of CENPHER (second from right) pose for a photo on the sidelines of the conference.Photo credit: Duong Van Nhiem
The Chiang Mai regional ecohealth symposium brought together researchers from 11 Asian nations, Germany, Portugal and the United States, giving them an opportunity to present research results, get professional updates in the field of ecohealth.
“It was a fruitful trip that helped me interact and network with colleagues and experts in the Asian region as well as those from Germany and the United States,” said Sinh.
The symposium was organized by the Veterinary Public HealthCenter for Asia Pacific (VPHCAP) at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Chiang Mai University, University of Minnesota, Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany, ComAcross Project and ILRI.
The FBLI is a five-year program funded by the Canadian International Development Research Center (IDRC) that focuses on solving human health problems associated with agricultural intensification and other challenges.
The program promotes the approach of EcoHealth, which combines medicine, veterinary medicine, ecology, biology and other disciplines, to researchers in Southeast Asia. The FBLI is conducted in four countries: China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, with the coordinating unit being based in Hanoi.
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