UI Don Advocates the Establishment of a National Animal Arboviral Diseases Early Warning System
Oru Leonard
A Professor of Veterinary Microbiology at the University of Ibadan, Professor Daniel Oladimeji Oluwayelu has called for the establishment of a National Animal Arboviral Diseases Early Warning System (NAADEWS) in Nigeria.
He made this call while delivering the 579th Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan on behalf of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
According to him, this establishment will reduce the burden of arboviral livestock diseases in Nigeria by gathering and disseminating information about arboviral disease emergencies, thus triggering appropriate responses from stakeholders.
The inaugural lecturer in his lecture titled: “Foray into the World of Viruses: The Steps of the Righteous are Ordered” stated that viruses impact both animal and human health as well as profitable livestock production negatively.
He, therefore, advocated a continuous surveillance for endemic, emerging, and zoonotic/arthropod-borne viral diseases in domestic livestock and companion animals because of their importance in human diets, their expanding populations nationwide and their increased interactions with humans.
Professor Oluwayelu adduced that tick-and mosquito-borne viruses of domestic livestock pose severe threats to global food security, economies of nations and public health due to their negative consequences on human and animal health as well as farmers’ productivity.
He disclosed that these zoonotic arboviruses cause fever, hemorrhagic disorders, abortions and death in infected persons, especially occupationally exposed individuals such as butchers, abattoir workers, herders and veterinarians.
The Inaugural Lecturer stated that the consideration of arboviral diseases like West Nile Fever in the differential diagnosis of undifferentiated febrile illness by Physicians in Nigeria since its clinical presentation, could be mistaken for malaria or typhoid fever that are endemic in the country.
Professor Oluwayelu said to prevent pathogen spill over and reduce cross-species transmission at the animal-human-ecosystem interface thereby eliminating the threat that emerging, zoonotic or arthropod-borne viruses constitute to human and animal health, there is a need for proper implementation of the FAO-OIE-WHO tripartite intersectoral cooperation on One Health (OH) in Nigeria.
He said that by integrating medical, veterinary, epidemiological, wildlife ecology, environmental, and social science expertise, the OH approach will strengthen Nigeria’s biosecurity and disease surveillance capacity.
He advised that public health awareness campaigns should be focused on these diseases, especially among dog/cat owners and occupationally at-risk individuals like hunters, butchers, abattoir/slaughter house workers, herdsmen and veterinarians.
The lecture was the second in the series of Inaugural Lectures for the 2024/2025 academic session.
(UI Media)
