The Southern African Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (SASVEPM) is pleased to announce its 21st Annual Congress, which will take place from 21 to 23 August 2024 at the Lagoon Beach Hotel, Cape Town.
Epi for Africa: Global Problems | Local Solutions
Africa is arguably the continent at highest risk from infectious diseases, but often struggles to implement internationally recommended veterinary surveillance and control measures successfully. This is not only due to severe resource limitations and lack of capacity, but also inexorably linked to the highly heterogeneous nature of our terrain, peoples, animals, and climate. To truly understand the complex eco-epidemiological landscapes of Africa requires creative approaches to data collection and disease surveillance, holistic control measures, participatory approaches, interdisciplinary efforts, and community involvement.
This year’s SASVEPM congress features the unique problems and circumstances faced in animal health and welfare on the African continent and explores practical and sustainable local and regional solutions. We believe that only by developing Afro-centric approaches to address global problems will we have a chance at finding the sustainable solutions we need to flourish as a continent.
The 21st SASVEPM congress serves as a strong multinational networking platform to build and foster collaborative research and enhance communication across disciplines, professions, and sectors. Join us for this exciting event which brings together veterinarians, para-veterinarians, and researchers from the southern African region and beyond. Participants interested in presenting oral or poster presentations are invited to submit abstracts under the theme “Epi for Africa: Global Problems | Local Solutions”.
IMPORTANT DATES
Call for Abstracts
Under this year’s theme, “Epi for Africa: Global Problems | Local Solutions”, the congress will cover all aspects of veterinary epidemiology and preventive medicine with a special focus on how African epidemiologists develop local solutions to address our most prominent global problems. It is organised under these sub-themes:
State of the Continent: Disease Rich, Data Poor
– Assessing the epidemiological landscape in Africa
– Challenges and opportunities in data collection and surveillance
Disease Prevention & Control in Low Resource Settings
– Innovations in disease prevention strategies
– Effective control measures in low-resource settings
Unique African Epidemiological Challenges & Solutions
– Contextualizing epidemiological approaches to African settings
– Solutions to region-specific health challenges
Epidemiological Methods
– Integrating community engagement in epidemiological research
– Advancements in participatory epidemiology techniques
One Health Approaches: Integrating Human, Animal, and Environmental Health
– Interdisciplinary strategies for addressing health challenges holistically
– Enhancing collaboration in human, animal, and environmental health
Animal Welfare
– Promoting animal health and well-being in research
– Ethical considerations in veterinary epidemiology and preventive medicine
Antimicrobial Resistance
– Surveillance and control of antimicrobial resistance in Africa
– Strategies to combat AMR in veterinary and human medicine
Wildlife Epidemiology
– Understanding disease dynamics in African wildlife populations
– Conservation strategies and disease management on the ground
Special sub-theme: Local Success Stories
This sub-theme is aimed at para-veterinarians or newly qualified veterinarians who may not be able to contribute a piece of research but can share successful approaches to their local problems and how overcoming these obstacles has had a positive impact on animal health. These stories can be aligned to any of the main themes or stand apart. We are specifically looking for local success stories that highlight successful epidemiological interventions or provide unique insights and experiences which we can learn from to translate success into practice in a real-world, African setting. Only oral presentations will be considered for this special sub-theme and limited to 10 minutes, with a few minutes for questions at the end. Creative presentations are encouraged
Abstract Format
Title: The title should be concise and clearly reflect the content of your abstract. Use a font size and style that is consistent with the conference guidelines.
Introduction: Provide a brief introduction that outlines the background and context of your research or study. Clearly state the research question or objective.
Methods: Describe the methods and techniques used in your research. Explain how you conducted the study, collected data, and analysed it. Be concise but provide enough detail for reviewers to understand your approach.
Results: Present the key findings of your research. Use graphs, tables, or other visual aids if applicable and allowed by the conference guidelines. Highlight the most important results and their significance.
Discussion: Interpret the results and discuss their implications. Explain how your findings contribute to the field or address the research question. Discuss any limitations of your study.
Conclusion: Summarize the main conclusions of your research. State the practical or theoretical implications of your work.
*Please note: Abstract format guidelines do not apply to special sub-theme submissions.
Abstract Requirements
- Abstracts must not exceed a 300-word limit. The word limit relates only to the text of the abstract and does not include title, authors and institutions.
- Use single line spacing.
- Tables, figures or images are permitted.
- Use Arial size 12 throughout the abstract. Abstracts must be fully justified, free of typographical and grammatical errors.
- Standard abbreviations may be used for common terms only. Otherwise, any abbreviation should be given in brackets after the first full use of the word. Abbreviations may be used in the title, provided the name in full is outlined in the body of the abstract.
- You will be asked to provide a short biography (up to 150 words) with your submission.
- You will be asked to nominate your preference for poster or 15 minute oral presentation.
- Please include degrees or professional titles (e.g. Dr, Prof., etc).
- It is the author’s responsibility to ensure the title, author and affiliation details entered in the paper submission site are correct and exactly as they should be published on the abstract and all congress materials.
- Consent/permission from contributing authors should be sought by the submitting author prior to submission.
A Late Registration surcharge of 6% will be added to all Regular registration rates from 12 August 2024
Dr. Nenene Qekwana
Dr. Daniel Nenene Qekwana (BSc, BVSc, MMedVet, PhD) is a recognized specialist in veterinary public health and an associated professor in the Department of Paraclinical Sciences at the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria where he is involved in teaching and training of undergraduate and postgraduate students in epidemiology, food safety, zoonotic diseases, and public health. After completing his PhD in epidemiology, he has conducted research on various topics including spatio-temporal changes in disease outbreaks, drivers of antimicrobial resistance in humans and animals, and the impact of policy decision/formulation from a justice perspective.
Dr. Qekwana is currently the Head of the Department of Paraclinical Sciences and a member of the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences research ethics committee. He has served as part of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance (MAC-AMR) until the end of 2023 and continues to serve as a member of the Gauteng Provincial Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee.
Dr. Anne Conan
Dr. Anne Conan is a researcher in epidemiology at the French Agricultural Research and International Cooperation Organization (CIRAD, France) and is attached to the Research Platform - Production and Conservation in Partnership (RP-PCP) based at the University of Zimbabwe. She specializes in infectious diseases and zoonoses in low-income areas.
Her main research topics include the surveillance of infectious diseases at the wildlife interface, the consequences of intensification of chicken farming in Asia (One Health Poultry Hub), the epidemiology of African swine fever in pigs, the epidemiology of Coxiella burnetii in humans and livestock, and the control of rabies in humans and dogs. She is a research fellow at the One Health Research Foundation.
Dr. Conan completed her DVM and MSc in epidemiological surveillance in 2008. She worked at the Public Health and Epidemiology Department in Pasteur Institute in Cambodia for five years. After completing her PhD in Epidemiology in 2013, Dr Conan started a post-doctorate fellowship at the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). She then joined Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (St. Kitts and Nevi, West Indies) in 2015 as a post-doctorate fellow before becoming an Assistant Professor in Epidemiology. After spending three years at City University of Hong Kong as research assistant professor and then research associate professor, she joined CIRAD in November 2022.
Dr. Locksley Messam
Dr. Locksley Messam (BSc., Dr. Med. Vet., PhD ) is a tenured lecturer at University College Dublin’s School of Veterinary Medicine. He is a veterinary epidemiologist with both methods-related and applied research interests, including epidemiologic study design, the validation and application of diagnostic tests and the effects of human-animal interactions on human health and wellbeing. A staunch advocate of the application of epidemiologic approaches to study design, data analysis and inferences, he maintains that studies claiming to be epidemiologic in nature, should be designed, conducted, and make inferences in ways that are recognisably consistent with the central concepts and methods of the discipline.
Having conducted research in Europe, North America and the Caribbean, Dr. Messam has substantial experience in the efficient conduct of epidemiologic studies requiring empirical data collection in a variety of cultural contexts. A native Jamaican, he is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, University of Veterinary Sciences, Hungary, and the University of California Davis, USA, where he did his undergraduate, veterinary and doctoral studies, respectively. A firm believer that formal training in epidemiology is invaluable to grasping the discipline’s approach to inference, he has taught epidemiology to veterinary and graduate students in the Caribbean, North America and Europe and has conducted a number of workshops on epidemiologic methods at the Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine’s (SVEPM) conferences. Since 2022, Dr. Messam has also been a member of SVEPM’s executive committee.
You can find out more about Dr. Messam on his webpage: https://people.ucd.ie/locksley.messam
Lagoon Beach Hotel, Cape Town
Indulge in magnificent views of Table Mountain over the Atlantic Ocean while situated on the beautiful Lagoon Beach, only 8.6km from Cape Town’s central business district and the V&A Waterfront – a hub of activity any time of the year. For hotels in Cape Town, look no further than Lagoon Beach Hotel as it is located just 18km from Cape Town International Airport.
Website: https://www.lagoonbeachhotel.co.za/
Accommodation Rates:
- R1650.00 – Classic Single Room (B&B) – | R1950 – Classic Sharing (B&B) per room, per night
