➨ SOHC Webinar Series on prioritized zoonosis in Somalia 2023
Emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases pose a threat to both humans and animals. The global impact of emerging and endemic zoonoses on human and animal populations makes their control and prevention a natural starting point for collaboration between humans, animals, plants, and their shared environment. As collaboration efforts progress, identifying zoonotic disease priorities of jurisdictional importance to governments and institutions becomes critical. Given this consideration, Somali experts from human, animal, plant, and environmental health sectors prioritized the 7 top zoonotic diseases of great national importance using CDC OHZDP Tool. The recently prioritized zoonotic diseases include Rift Valley Fever (RVF), MERS-CoV, Anthrax, Trypanosomiasis, Brucellosis, Zoonotic Enteric Parasites, and Avian Influenza.
To address these issues, the Somali One Health Centre of Abrar University and worldwide research partners invite undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, health professionals, and decision-makers to attend the webinar series on the recently prioritized Zoonotic diseases for Somalia. This series of webinars will be broadcast via Zoom on the second Wednesday of every month, beginning in April 2023.
➨ Opening Remarks

Opening Remarks by Prof. Abdalla Ibrahim
Vice-Rector of R&D, Abrar University, Somalia
Opening Remarks by Dr. Mamunur Malik
WHO Country Representative for Somalia
Opening Remarks by Etienne Peterschmitt
FAO Country Representative for Somalia
Opening Remarks by Dr. Keilie
Director of Animal Health and Vet Pub Service, MoLFR, Somalia
Opening Remarks by H.E. Dr. Said Ali
Deputy Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Somalia
Opening Remarks by H.E. Dr. Mohamed Bulaale
Deputy Minister of Health & Human Services, Somalia
➨ Presenters
Webinar 1: The process used to prioritize the top zoonotic diseases of concern for Somalia
Wednesday, 12 April 2023, 16:00 – 18:00 EAT (13:00-15:00 UTC)

Farah Mumin graduated with DVM from Jimma University, Ethiopia in June 2016 and joined Red Sea University, Somalia as an assistant lecturer. In November 2019, Farah concluded his master’s degree in vaccine production and quality control from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He was elected as a chairman of the Puntland Livestock Professionals Association (PULPA) in July 2020. He pursued a second master’s degree in Infection and Immunity at the University of Liverpool which he completed in December 2022. He is currently enrolled at the Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences (IVES) at the University of Liverpool as PhD student and is a graduate fellow at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). His research focuses on zoonoses and infectious diseases management and prevention in pastoral settings.
Webinar 2: Social, Economic and Environmental Drivers of Zoonotic Diseases
Wednesday, 19 April 2023, 16:00 – 18:00 EAT (13:00-15:00 UTC)

Joacim is an epidemiologist, modeler and data scientist conducting interdisciplinary research within the field of climate change and infectious diseases. He obtained his PhD from Umeå University, Sweden. In the year 2021 he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the The Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany. The chair at Heidelberg University focuses on applying data science and modelling to the area of One Health and climate change. It functions as a bridge between the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH) and the interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Computing (IWR) at Heidelberg University. In 2018 Joacim was awarded the Albert II of Monaco and the Institute Pasteur Prize for research on environmental change and infectious diseases. Prof. Rocklöv is the principal investigator and co-PI of several major research projects within the area of climate change and infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness. He is a Guest Professor at Umeå University in Sweden.

Marina is a post-doctorate scientist. She has completed her PhD in Health Economics, where she focused on the model-based evaluation of public health interventions such as vaccination and cancer screening. She has also been trained in Biology and Epidemiology. Her current research interest and focus lie on the impacts of changing climate on infectious diseases such as vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. She is particularly interested in investigating climate change and land use effects on zoonotic pathogen spillover from reservoir host animals to humans and domestic animals. Further, her domain includes interventions that go beyond conventional public health and target disease emergence at the source. These include upstream prevention policies, mosquito-bite control, and nature-based solutions. In her research, she utilizes different models and methods of intervention science to explore effective and cost-effective ways to prevent the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases.
Webinar 3: Rift Valley Fever: Epidemiology and Public Health Concern
Wednesday, 10 May 2023, 16:00 – 18:00 EAT (13:00-15:00 UTC)

Dr. Ibrahim is an assistant professor in epidemiology. He has a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Basel, Switzerland and has rich experiences in teaching, research, and community engagement in the areas of zoonosis, food safety and AMR. His main area of research interest is on vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, food safety and One Health policy and practices. He has depth knowledge in One Health concept, IHR-monitoring and evaluation framework tools, multi-sectoral One Health coordination mechanism and national bridging workshop. Currently, he is a national epidemiologist and One Health focal point for the World Health Organization country office in Ethiopia.
Webinar 4: Anthrax at the Human-Animal-Environment Interface
Wednesday, 14 June 2023, 16:00 – 18:00 EAT (13:00-15:00 UTC)

Dr Siobhan Mor is an Associate Professor of One Health at the University of Liverpool in the UK, jointly appointed at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Ethiopia. Prior to this, she held academic appointments in the United States and Australia. Siobhan has a dual background in veterinary medicine and public health. She has been based full time in Ethiopia since 2018 where she has served as Research Lead for the Ethiopia hub of the HORN project; as ILRI-Principle Investigator on the HEAL project; and as Ethiopia country coordinator for the COHESA project.
Webinar 5: Bruceloosis
Wednesday, 09 August 2023, 16:00 – 18:00 EAT (13:00-15:00 UTC)

Prof. Waleed obtained BVSc and DVM from Cairo University, in 1994. He worked in Veterinary Serum and Vaccine Research Institute as a veterinarian and specialized in bacterial vaccines and antigens production (1995-1998). Then, he moved to work in Central Laboratory for Evaluation of Veterinary Biologics from 1998 till now as a veterinarian and specializes in the evaluation of bacterial vaccines and antigens, especially brucella vaccines. He obtained a master’s degree (2000) and a PhD (2007) in microbiology (brucella) from Cairo University. He was a principal investigator (PI) in Mapping brucellosis risk pathways and critical control points at the animal-human interface in Egypt funded by CRDF. Waleed was a partner in the Spanish-Egyptian project for the control of brucellosis in Upper Egypt (2008-2010). He was a partner in the project with Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (“FLI”) entitled (strengthening the Cooperation on Biosecurity and Biosafety with Egypt) (2018-2019) and PI of Project funded by the German-Egyptian Research Fund (GERF), Call 5 entitled (Detection of Brucella in milk tanks using wireless sensor technology).
Webinar 6/ Last Session: Zoonotic Enteric Parasites Under a One Health Approach
Wednesday, 13 September 2023, 16:00 – 18:00 EAT (13:00-15:00 UTC)

Dr. Anastasios Tsaousis is the Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Molecular and Evolutionary Parasitology at the University of Kent. The current research of his laboratory is focused on the investigations of the evolution and adaptations of microbial gut parasites (e.g. Cryptosporidium, Blastocystis, Giardia, Gregarines), under the One Health perspective. To accomplish this, his laboratory is combining detailed bioinformatics analyses of newly generated genomic/transcriptomic/metabolomic results with field, cell biological and biochemical methods to investigate the parasitic and free-living microbial eukaryotes living in diverse and extreme environments. He has more than 50 publications in the field and obtained more than 5 million euros in research funding. He is successfully collaborating with research institutions from both developed (e.g. Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Singapore, Spain, US) and developing countries (e.g. Algeria, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Somalia and Thailand) and he is leading an international European Action grant on Blastocystis One Health. In 2022 Dr. Tsaousis was the recipient Hutner Achievement Award from the International Society of Protistologists.

Moderator
12 April – 13 September 2023, 16:00 – 18:00 EAT (13:00-15:00 UTC)
Dr. Aamir Muse Osman
Dr. Aamir is a Ph.D. candidate at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Brazil, Director of Somalia One Health Centre at Abrar University and One Health Officer at Ministry of Livestock, Forestry, and Range, Somalia. He received his MSc at UFPR and his Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine from Abrar University (AU), Somalia. His research emphasizes epidemiology of tick-borne and transboundary infectious diseases under One Health approach.