A two-day international e-Symposium on “One Health Concept: Opportunities and Perspectives in Present Scenario” and XVII Annual Conference of Indian Association of Veterinary Public Health Specialists (IAVPHS) was held at Centre for One Health, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana.
On the inaugural day the participants were addressed by Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor, GADVASU; Dr. B.N. Tripathi, Deputy Director General (Animal Science), Indian Council of Agricultural Research; Dr. Manju Rahi, Deputy Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research; Dr. A.M. Paturkar, Vice-Chancellor, MAFSU, Maharashtra; Dr. Praveen Malik, Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Government of India; Dr. Baljit Singh, Vice-president Research, University of Saskatchewan, Canada; Dr. Subeer Majumdar, Director, National Institute of Animal Biotechnology, Hyderabad and Dr. Ashok Kumar, Assistant Director General (AS), ICAR.
Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor, GADVASU emphasized the importance of one health to tackle several emerging issues related to human, animal and environmental health. Dr. Singh highlighted the achievements of Centre for One Health and congratulated the organizing team for this endeavour and trusted that it would be helpful for the scientists across the country and overseas to boost their research skills and collaborations in the area of One Health. Dr. J.P.S. Gill, Director Research, GADVASU and General Secretary, IAVPHS welcomed all the dignitaries and briefed the approach of One Health in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He stressed that there is need for collaboration among medical, veterinary and other health sciences working for the optimum health of human, animal and environment.
Dr. J.S. Bedi, organizing secretary and Director, Centre for One Health, GADVASU informed that the scientists across the country and from overseas such as, Dr Baljit Singh, Dr Emily Jenkins, from University of Saskatchewan, Canada; Dr Navneet Dhand, University of Sydney, Australia; Dr Javier Guitian, Royal Veterinary College, UK; Dr Jeroen Dewluf, Ghent University, Belgium and Dr. Gyanendra Gongal, WHO Regional Adviser, Food safety Officer in South-East Asia shared their experiences in various themes of One Health. Dr Bedi said that 341 participants registered for this symposium and more than 150 scientific abstracts were submitted by the research scholars. In this scientific event, GADVASU students and faculty bagged many prestigious awards including young scientist, best oral and poster presentations, best M.V.Sc and Ph.D thesis and Prof. Mahendra Pal Zoonses award.
