STSM University of Copenhagen (March 2019)

I had the great opportunity to collaborate with the working group 2 of the SOUND control project during a 2-week STSM in Copenhagen. This STSM was led by Prof. Hans Houe and Prof. Søren Saxmose Nielsen from the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences of the University of Copenhagen. The aim of this STSM was to determine which data are required to estimate freedom of disease of Paratuberculosis and Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) for different control programs in dairy cattle and what their availability is in selected countries.

The tasks involved much individual reading and many discussions about parameters of interest, existing diagnostic tests strategies and purposes of declaring herds free of selected diseases. The main output of this STSM was a data framework gathering information about 1) overview of the challenges in pathogenesis of paratuberculosis and BVD, 2) data requirements for declaration of freedom from paratuberculosis and BVD. This data framework could be used to determine whether the probability of freedom can be calculated and it will be further developed through future STSMs.

Also, during these two weeks, I had the chance to meet and expand my network with the rest of the team from the department, who were very welcoming and integrated me as one team member. This opportunity was very enriching and allowed me to have interesting conversations such as, for example, regarding my professional career.

Violeta Muñoz
SAFOSO, Switzerland