Dr. Sarah Cleaveland Receives Trevor Blackburn Award - British Veterinary Association

Main Category: Veterinary
Article Date: 29 Sep 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Dr Sarah Cleaveland was on Saturday announced as the winner of the Trevor Blackburn Award in recognition of her work on zoonotic, livestock and wildlife diseases in East Africa and for her outstanding contributions to animal and human health, wildlife conservation and animal welfare in Africa and beyond. The announcement came during the Awards Ceremony at the British Veterinary Association's Annual Congress in London.

Dr Cleaveland is a veterinary epidemiologist who has been based at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies for the last ten years, moving this month to Glasgow University, where she will divide her time between the Faculty of Biomedical and Life Sciences and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr Cleaveland's research work has focused on the epidemiology of infectious disease at the human-wildlife-domestic animal interface, including rabies, canine distemper, bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis and echinococcosis. Rabies has been her principal interest for many years and in 2006 Dr Cleaveland spearheaded the establishment of the Alliance for Rabies Control which provides a focus for international advocacy for global canine rabies elimination and celebrates its second annual World Rabies Day on September 28.

1. This Award was instigated last year by the BVA's Overseas Group in memory of Mr J Trevor Blackburn, President of the BVA 1984-85, the Commonwealth Veterinary Association 1988-91 and the World Veterinary Association 1991-95. In so doing, the Group was mindful of the countless numbers of British veterinary surgeons who have served overseas, especially in the Tropics, over at last two centuries. Many of those in the earlier days were in the colonial service or, later, worked with government departments or aid organisations in newly independent countries. All contributed to the control of livestock disease and the raising of standards of animal and human health. The situation today is rather different. British veterinary surgeons do live and work overseas but many are "volunteers" and often sacrifice much in order to contribute to animal health and environmental needs in other, less fortunate, parts of the world. Often their altruism does not receive the acclaim it deserves. The Trevor Blackburn Award, named after a colleague who believed passionately that the profession still has so much to offer, provides an opportunity to recognise some of these people.

2. The BVA Overseas Group's citation for Sarah Cleaveland

3. For further information on the Alliance for Rabies Control visit http://www.rabiescontrol.net and World Rabies Day http://www.worldrabiesday.org

British Veterinary Association