On 17-21 February, Margarita Kazak, a PhD student, biologist at the Laboratory of Entomology, was an expert in the training course “Regional Training Course on the Capture, Sorting, Detection and Differentiation of the Most Important Vectors for Vector Based Diseases (VBDs)”, which took place at the National Centre for Veterinary Diagnosis, Tan Trung Chua Hamlet, Hien Ninh Commune, Soc Son District, Hanoi city, Vietnam. The training course was organised and funded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Kazak was invited as an expert by Dr Bruno Mathieu, whom she met in Strasbourg last September as a trainee. Together with Dr Mathieu, M. Kazak was responsible for the collection, sorting and identification of Culicoides biting midges.
Seven experts from 5 countries (Turkey, France, Romania, Serbia and Lithuania) and 19 students from 15 Asian countries participated in the course. The training course included training on how to properly prepare and fix traps in the field, how to remove traps and prepare the collected material for transport to the laboratory, how to process the material in the laboratory and prepare it for morphological identification, and how to identify invertebrates to the genus and, if possible, to the species. The training lasted 2 weeks (17-28 February). During the first week, all attention and time was devoted to showing students the capture methods and procedures and demonstrating the methods of vector selection and characterisation, as well as introducing the theoretical material (collection of vectors, identification and application of molecular methods for identification). During the second week, a film crew arrived and prepared a video on vector collection in the field and processing in the laboratory.
