The Establishment of Veterinary Entomology in Cambodia project (VECAM) is a national project involving a research organism (Institut Pasteur du Cambodge), a national Cambodian university (Royal University of Agriculture) and a veterinary service of the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture (GDAHP/NAHPRI). This project is a national FSPI project financed by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.

To identify, characterize and estimate the risk related to human and veterinary pathogens carried by ticks it is crucial to identify the different tick species and therefore to create a specie determination key.

As part of this project the Medical and Veterinary Entomology unit of Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) organized last week a 5 days, “Ticks: Taxonomy and Transmission”. The 5 days training was opened in presence of Prof. André Spiegel, Director of the IPC. Participants of the Royal University of Agriculture, from the National Animal Health and Production Research Institute and the IPC received theorical lessons on biology, morphology of ticks, transmission of pathogens and vector control. On this occasion they also did a lot of taxonomy and a field trip was organized.

The training was conducted by Dr. Sarah Bonnet, a researcher at Institut Pasteur and French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment. Her research interests are transmission of tick-borne pathogens by their vectors including epidemiological studies, laboratory competency analysis and anti-tick vaccines development.