DBT Prepares India for “Brucella-Free Villages”
India‘s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has embarked on an ambitious scientific-cum-social program to make every Indian village Brucella-free. Brucella causes Brucellosis – an infectious disease transmitted by ingesting contaminated food such as unpasteurized milk and other dairy products, and by coming in contact with infected animal secretions and tissues. In humans, Brucellosis causes a range of symptoms similar to flu, and is estimated to cause economic losses worth Indian rupee 2,800 million.
Honorable Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Mr. Y.S. Chowdary announced a pilot program “Brucella-Free Villages” to be introduced in 50 villages covering 10 States during the inauguration of 69th Meeting of the International Society on Brucellosis and International Conference on Brucellosis 2016. The event was organized jointly by the DBT in collaboration with Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) in New Delhi.
The Minister of S&T Mr. Chowdary, together with State Minister of Agriculture Mr. Sudarshan Bhagat and DBT Secretary Dr. K. Vijayraghavan launched three new diagnostic kits and released a book “Animal Biotechnology – Vaccines and Diagnostic – Market and Investment Opportunities” authored by Drs. G Dhinkar Raj, SR Rao, and S Thilagar.
The International Brucellosis Conference 2016 hosted participants from 26 countries, including Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Cameroon, Costa Rica, France, Georgia, Germany, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States.
This article is part of the Crop Biotech Update, a weekly summary of world developments in agri-biotech for developing countries, produced by the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology, International Service for the Aquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications SEAsiaCenter (ISAAA)