Abstract

Abstract: The recent wave of pandemic/epidemics in the world has necessitated that Africa join the global push to not only to be ready for future pandemics but to also preempt them. Africa is plagued with a lot of neglected tropical diseases, many of them caused by neurotropic viruses. With minimal funding of these diseases, the burden they create on quality of life and productivity of animals has not been well estimated. More important is the need for active surveillance of possible reservoir hosts for some of these Neglected Tropical Diseases, so as to proper understand their epidemiology. In this presentation, I will be speaking on West Nile, and Crimean Congo Heamorrhagic Fever viruses, and the roles that reservoirs may be playing for reverse zoonosis.

Short Citation: James Olukayode Olopade graduated with the DVM (Veterinary) degree in 1992 and obtained his MSc and PhD in 2003 and 2006, respectively, all from the University of Ibadan. He was promoted full Professor in 2011. James carried out postdoctoral trainings in Marine Biology Laboratory Woodshole, USA , as an International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO) Fellow at Penn State University, USA in 2008, and as a MacArthur and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, both at the University of Wurzburg, Germany. He has served as Editor in Chief, Nigerian Veterinary Journal and Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. His current research areas are in neuroscience, comparative anatomy and surveillance biology. He has been funded by a variety of organisations including the International Society of Neurochemistry; the International Brain Research Organisation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Nigeria, and the Cambridge Alborada Grant (UK) amongst others. He has over 160 research publications including 4 copyrights and is the most cited veterinarian in Africa as per brain research. James Olopade is currently the Principal Investigator of Alexander von Humboldt Research Hub for Zoonotic Arboviral Diseases (HRH-ZAD), a €750,000 Humboldt Research Hub funding for pandemic preparedness, and also the Director of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.