Handan Hilal Arslan Yavuz

Ondokuz Mayis University

hharslan@omu.edu.tr

Turkey

Working Groups: WG2, WG3, WG4

Scientific Expertise: Veterinary medicine (miscellaneous)

Contribution: I expect to contribute to main objectives of the COST Action. Firstly, I can plan a project for determination of current situation of biosecurity measures in my province. Also, I can prepare a survey for detection of biosecurity awareness levels of farmers and veterinarians. Then, I can manage special training programs about ìHow can we manage biosecurity in big and small family-type farms?î, ìHow can we provide biosecurity awareness on farmers?î, ìWhat is biosecurity with veterinarian aspect?î etc. In addition, different biosecurity application methods and evaluation of their effects on animal health, productivity, and safe food production could be evaluated. The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey supports this kind of research project with a special program called ì2519-COST Working Group Support Programî. The program provides financial support to Turkish COST Working Group Members for their COST-related projects up to 720.000 Turkish Liras for 36 months.

Motivation: Turkey has 17.965.482 large animals according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT)ís data in 2020. Although there are many big farms in Turkey, most livestock establishments are still small family-type farms. Insufficient biosecurity applications are important problems and creating biosecurity awareness has special importance in these small-sized farms as well as big farms. The other important issue is Turkeyís unique geographical position. Turkey is a kind of bridge between Asia and Europe. Alongside other cattle diseases, Transboundary Cattle Diseases (TCDs) have a particular place in Turkey. TCDs cause serious economic and public health problems and biosecurity applications are also very essential against them. In the frame of this information, we need to create high alert awareness about biosecurity for veterinarians and farmers whole Europe, including Turkey. The COST Action will be very beneficial for this aim and my contribution may support its objectives.

Scientific Background: I am an associate professor at the Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, Turkey. Also, I worked at Milan University, Italy, and Szent Istvan University, Hungary as visiting scientist. I have been working on large animal internal diseases, including infectious and zoonotic diseases since 2002. I have international and national scientific papers and a book chapter translation on large animal infectious and systemic diseases. In addition, I have been giving Ph.D. courses about ìBiosecurity in Veterinary Medicineî since 2017. Biosecurity is one of my focused scientific topics which I try to create awareness for every graduate and undergraduate veterinary student and our colleagues. Based on my scientific and clinical experiences, I expect I can support the works of the COST Action.

Handan Hilal Arslan Yavuz

COST

Action CA20103

Action Details