The Virology Unit of Institut Pasteur du Cambodge hosted a one-week training course entitled “Laboratory training on arbovirus neutralization techniques for the purpose of serological diagnostic” from 19 to 23 September 2022. Typical arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) like dengue, Japanese encephalitis and Chikungunya viruses pose a major public health threat in Southeast Asia. Increasing the capability of more and more laboratories to perform serological diagnostic for these pathogens strengthens the overall capacity to detect and investigate disease outbreaks in the whole region.

The aim of this course was to provide to the trainees all necessary essentials of classical arbovirus neutralization techniques (using live virus) so that they are able to establish this assay in their laboratories afterwards. As the Virology Unit of IPC is also an EU-approved laboratory for rabies serology for vaccinated pet animals, the participants also got a demonstration of the rabies virus neutralization test. Like many Pasteur-organized courses, this was a hybrid course including not only lecturing on the theoretical principles but also practical training. This training was the first international course held at the IPC since the end of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, six scientists attended this course, two coming from the One Health Collaborating Center of the Universitas Gadjah Mada (Yogyakarta, Indonesia), two from the Faculty of Veterinary Technology of the Kasetsart University (Bangkok, Thailand) and two from the Rabies group from Institut Pasteur du Laos (Vientiane, Lao PDR).

This course, organized as part of two projects carried out in collaboration between Cirad and Institut Pasteur du Cambodge: the DogZooSEA and the SEA-Dog-SEA (Socio-Ecological Approach of Dog-borne zoonotic diseases in South East Asia projects, which both support research and laboratory capacities on dog-associated zoonotic diseases. The DogZooSea project funded by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs through Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) through the Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects (FSPI) program “One Health in practice in South-East Asia”. The SEA-Dog-SEA project, which associates Gadjah Mada, Kasetsart and Liège (Belgium) universities with CIRAD, is funded through the Southeast Asia – Europe Joint Funding Scheme for Research and Innovation (ANR-19-ASIE-0002).  

The exchanges and the connections made throughout the course will lead to further knowledge transfers and cooperation.