Professor Dirk Pfeiffer (Chair Professor of One Health at the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences) visited the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA) of the Republic of Korea in Gimcheon on 30 and 31 August 2018.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the CityU Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC) and the Food Inspection & Quarantine Technical Centre (FICS) of Shenzhen Customs District on August 21, 2018.

Prof. Dirk Pfeiffer (Chair Professor of One Health at the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences) was one of the lead trainers in a two-day training programme for a group of veterinary epidemiologists who serve in the Government of the People’s Republic of China.

Prof. Dirk Pfeiffer (Chair Professor of One Health and Director of the Centre for Applied One Health Research and Policy Advice) said in an article in the South China Morning Post that “Hong Kong authorities needed to do their utmost to keep the virus out of the city given no cure or vaccine for it exists” and recommends the slaughter of local pigs in a different slaughterhouse from mainland Chinese pigs to prevent taking the infection back to the farms.

Dr Howard Wong, as a member of the Scientific Committee on Vector-borne Diseases (SCVBD) under the Centre for Health Protection (CPH), took part in a meeting between representatives from the CHP and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to review the latest situation of local dengue fever and the Government’s prevention and control measures.

A high point of the ceremony was the announcement by University Grants Committee (UGC) Chairman Mr Carlson Tong Ka-shing that following the results of an international Task Force review, “UGC will be recommending to the Government to accept CityU’s proposal to establish an undergraduate Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) programme starting from the 2019-2022 triennium, as a publicly-funded programme.” I

Our college, Hong Kong’s first and only veterinary college, has been named Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences in collaboration with Cornell University in a ceremony attended by the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

A new study, titled “Livestock trade network: potential for disease transmission and implications for risk-based surveillance on the island of Mayotte”, has recently been published in Scientific Reports.

The Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, Prof. Reichel, and Dr Padalino (Assistant Professor in Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health) recently visited the Mai Po Nature Reserve, a designated Ramsar site and protected site of scientific interest managed by WWF Hong Kong.

Dr Michael Doube recently joined the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health as Associate Professor.