TANUVAS organises a 4-day international conference on Parasitology

CHENNAI: The four-day International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP) was on Sunday inaugurated by the Additional Chief Secretary Mangat Ram Sharma in association with National Academy of Veterinary Sciences (NAVS) and Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS).

"Parasites in animals are considered as silent killers and play an important role in affecting the well being and production performance of livestock as well as human beings. Parasitic diseases are of significance concerning human health since more than 50 per cent of animal parasites are transmissible to human beings as zoonoses. This topic is of major concern under one health concept, " said A Sangaran, professor at Madras Veterinary College who is also the organising chairman of the conference.

"Parasitic diseases make the animals weak and expose the animals to bacterial and viral diseases ultimately resulting in death of the affected animals. This conference is a platform to discuss and deliberate on the various impacts of parasites on animal and human beings and to arrive at a possible solution to control the diseases caused by the parasites. The conference is being held for the first time in India" he added.

Further, the conference chairman said that the conference has participants from over 50 countries and almost from every continent.

"There are 30 sessions of oral presentations on various sub themes and poster presentations numbering around 400 research papers in the subject of veterinary parasitology will be presented by the delegates during the conference, " added Sangaran.

The four-day conference was inaugurated on Sunday (August 20) and will end on August 24.

J Radhakrishnan, Commissioner, GCC, KN Selvakumar, Vice-Chancellor, Tanuvas and others were present on the occasion.