Welcome to Student Spotlight. Every couple of months we will feature the students that make up the Australasian Student Veterinary Public Health Network and ask them a few questions about themselves.
ROB RYAN
2nd year undergraduate, University of Queensland, Gatton, South East Queensland, Australia
What interests you about veterinary public health?
Public health is such a diverse area that is still undergoing massive expansion. Australia is surrounded by nations overrun with numerous parasites and diseases we take for granted being free of, and right now we sit on the edge of entering into a new theatre of public health as the effects of global warming increase, possibly unveiling all kinds of new threats to our national biosecurity. However, my main interest is centered on the groundbreaking research for substituting bovine rumen flora with those of kangaroos which has the potential to at least halve cattle methane emissions and cut Australia’s production of greenhouse gases whilst at the same time increasing animal energy retention and ultimately leading to a significant increase in meat volume produced per animal.
MARIANA FERDINANDEZ
Undergraduate, Udayana University, Bali Island, Indonesia.
What interests you about public health?
I am interested in zoonoses because our state government's attention in the field of veterinary public health is very limited. This is mainly due to lack of cooperation between governments with veterinarians in our country. I hope one day our government will pay more attention and entrust public health to vets.
DANIELL CRAGG
4th year undergraduate, Massey Universtiy, Palmerston North, New Zealand
What interests you about veterinary public health?
The integration of human and animal health through the concept of 'one
medicine'.
BONNIE CUMMINGS
2008 Graduate, University of Queensland, St Lucia, South East Queensland, Australia
What interests you about veterinary public health?
Vet public health's ability to integrate animal population health (particularly that of wildlife) with broader ecology and effects on human populations, as well as those effects of humans on the animal populations makes vet public health a fascinating and ever expanding field. Those VPH issues relevant to wildlife conservation are my main interest, however as everything is interrelated in this delicate web of ours, any developing animal population health issue is of course, of importance.
