In Rome the IV International Conference on Bluetongue and related orbiviruses

The IV International Conference on Bluetongue and related orbiviruses, starting at the Auditorium Antonianum on the 5^th of November 2014 in Rome, has the objective to update the European and international politics for the surveillance and control of the bluetongue virus and related orbivirus and to identify the most recent and most effective strategies to fight this disease.

The Conference, official event of the Italian Semester of Presidency of the European Union, is held eleven years after the previous edition and involves the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the European Commission, the Italian Ministry of Health and all the OIE Reference Laboratories for Bluetongue.

During the three Conference days, policy makers, researchers, national competent authorities, representatives of the International Organizations and of the production world, will exchange opinions on the factors influencing emergence and the spread of bluetongue virus, on animal-vector-host-virus interaction and on the most recent developments of the laboratory diagnosis.

The last day of the Conference, the 7^th of November, will be dedicated to the surveillance and control of the disease and its impact on economics and world trade.

The Ministry of Health decided to held the Conference in Italy, inserting the event in the official programme of the Italian Semester, as this country is still representing an effective and efficient model of fighting against this disease, which remains a very topical issue not only in Italy, but also in Europe and in the world.

This new Conference dedicated to “Bluetongue” was organized by the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise and will gather up about 300 experts, including speakers and participants from all around the world: Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, the Russian Federation, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Libya, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, The Netherlands, People's Republic of China, The United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, USA, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the Palestinian Autonomous Territories, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey.

During the three days the experts attending the Conference will use the opportunity to held Regional meetings aiming at sharing the strategies, the methods and tools used against bluetongue and to strengthen the network of existing collaborations, essential to fight against diseases transmitted by orbiviruses. In fact, they spread very quickly ignoring geographic boundaries.

The Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise, is organizing the Conference for the second time (the previous edition was held in Taormina in 2003) in its role of OIE Reference Laboratory for Bluetongue and National Reference Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases (CESME).

National Reference Centres are laboratories of excellence working for the entire national health system, identified and coordinated by the Ministry of Health within the ten Italian Experimental Zooprofilactic Institutes, and they represent an operative tool in animal health, food hygiene and zootecnical hygiene specific specialized sectors.

CESME, technical body of the Ministry of Health, develops risk assessment studies on Bluetongue on the national territory, carries out and confirms the diagnosis of disease and implements national surveillance plans.

For further information about the conference please contact us by e-mail: bt2014@izs.it or visit our dedicated website: www.btconference2014.izs.it