VIOLET MENGO
Lusaka
May 11, 2016
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| student in the laboratory |
Today, Zambia boasts of one of the best veterinary schools of medicine in southern Africa.
The UNZA veterinary school of medicine has continued to impart knowledge in students both from within the country and abroad.
Professor Aaron Mweene is a virologist in the department of disease control at the veterinary school of medicine and is one of the first students to be enrolled at the institution in 1983.
About 30 years ago, Prof. Mweene says there were very few veterinaries in the country, a situation that prompted Dr Kaunda to seek assistance from Japan.
Arising from the discussions between the governments of Japan and Zambia, the first veterinary school of medicine became operational in 1983 with about 10 students, although there was no physical infrastructure at the time.
From 1984 to 1986, using grant aid, the Japanese government through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), started constructing the veterinary school, which became a master piece with state-of-the art equipment.
“With the school infrastructure in place, Zambia was ready to train veterinary doctors who would look into the interests of animal production and health,” Prof. Mweene says.
According to him, the negotiations made by Dr Kaunda were based on the fact that Zambia needed to increase its animal population hence the need for good livestock programmes.
During that time, there were very few indigenous veterinarians because of the high cost that was involved in training veterinary doctors. The training was mostly conducted in Europe and other countries.
To this end, JICA organised Japanese experts who conducted training sessions for Zambian personnel in Japan from 1985 to 1997.
JICA also implemented the project for improving animal health and production through enhanced extension services from 2006 to 2009.
“From the 10 indigenous veterinarians in 1986, UNZA has to date produced more than 300 graduates of veterinary medicine,” Prof. Mweene shares.
With an increased number of veterinary doctors, Zambia now has adequate human resource capacity to deal with the health of animals and their production.
JICA also developed an intensive staff technical programme through which professors and other experts from the veterinary school of medicine at Hokkaido University in Japan came to Zambia to train local staff in veterinary services.
The aggressive intensive staff development programme was introduced to ensure that there was development of human resource that was going to eventually be responsible for running the UNZA veterinary school of medicine in terms of training and research.
“I was in this group for the intensive exchange programme for those that were trained to become lecturers. I went to Hokkaido University to do my PhD,” Prof. Mweene recalls.
After working as a lecturer for a number of years, Prof. Mweene became Dean of the veterinary school of medicine at UNZA.
JICA project formulation adviser for health Yukari Yasutaka says due to the urgent need at the time to establish a veterinary school of medicine in Zambia, the agency embarked on a technical cooperation programme through which Japanese experts came to Zambia to establish a proper teaching mechanism, train lecturers and formulate a curriculum for the veterinary school at UNZA.
Ms Yasutaka says this kind of technical cooperation took place from 1985 to 2009 during which about 100 Japanese experts came to Zambia.
“Under the Japanese Oversees Volunteer Programme which started in 1967, Japanese volunteers were sent to Zambia to help in different sectors like health, agriculture and education,” she explains.
JICA used this overseas scheme to send about 14 volunteers to UNZA as lecturers and technicians to help with the establishment of the veterinary school of medicine at the country’s highest institution of learning.
Hokkaido University was the greatest contributor to the establishment of the veterinary school at UNZA through training programmes and other collaborations that took place since 1983.
Masahiro Kajihara from Hokkaido University is working as JICA expert of the programme called project for surveillance of Viral Zoonoses in Africa.
Dr Kajihara, a virologist whose project started in 2013 at UNZA, says there are currently a lot of emerging and re-emerging diseases.
Going by Dr Kajihara, most viral infectious diseases, including Ebola, are zoonoses caused by viruses that infect both humans and animals.
“Hokkaido University and UNZA have jointly implemented the project for surveillance of viral zoonoses in Africa,” says Dr Kajihara.
The project is implemented within the framework of the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development, a partnership between JICA and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).
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| one of the laboratory at the veterinary school of medicine |
In 2007, a Zambia office of the Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control was set up at UNZA school of veterinary medicine.
With a goal of strengthening research and survey capability related to viral zoonoses, the project aims to develop and improve diagnostic techniques.
In 2010, UNZA working with JICA and Hokkaido University, established a biosafety level three laboratory in the veterinary school of medicine.
This facility is a laboratory that enables researchers to handle highly dangerous and infectious agents.
“We focus on clarifying the mechanisms of where and how viruses exist in the natural world, and when or how they invade human society,” Dr Kajihara explains.
He works with his Zambian counterparts in research and capacity building.
“We collect biological samples including bats and droppings of water birds in the field to carry out the epidemiological study of such viral zoonoses as avian influenza and Ebola,” he says.
During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the UNZA school of veterinary medicine was the sole diagnostic laboratory for early detection and outbreak prevention.
Dr Kaj ihara says while participating in the international joint research, there has been a continuous transfer of skills to Zambian researchers.
And Hokkaido University study abroad coordinator Satoshi Nakamura says Hokkaido University Lusaka, housed within the department of veterinary medicine, was established in 2012 and is the Africa regional office.
Mr Nakamura says the university has promoted the establishment of inter university agreements for academic exchange programmes.
“We have encouraged collaboration between researchers in Africa and Hokkaido University and collaborated with Japan related organisations such as JICA,” Mr Nakamura says.
He says the university is trying to extend relations to other fields such as engineering.
“Our main aim is to enhance relations between and among universities through explaining our activities and inviting students to Japan,” he says.
Because of the university’s vast experience, the Japanese Ministry of Education made a contract with Hokkaido University to act as study abroad coordinator.
“Our government is now trying to increase the international student bursaries up to 300,000 by 2020,” Mr Nakamura points out.
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