At the vet school..

We have just spent a week in Morogorro at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). This school is home to the only Veterinary Faculty in all of Tanzania so it was definitely a unique experience to gain some perspective before our work begins. We had the opportunity to go on field calls with the 5yr vet students. An example of our calls were: an umbilical abscess on a calf, a farm with high chicken mortality where we did a necropsy to discover it was New Castles disease, uterus treatment on cows that have problems conceiving, dogs with potential parvo virus and TONS of external parasites and an adult cow dehorning. It was clear from these visits and our experience at the school that, regardless of limitations of resources and finances, the theory involved with veterinary medicine is fairly consistent. Not surprisingly, its application can be very different and this is something I am sure we will encounter quite frequently in the coming months. . We got a tour of their school (anatomy labs look the same as ours – just more bones of rhinos and elephants!) and saw their school veterinary clinic. We were also lucky enough to see a few dog cases come into the clinic (a hit by car injured leg, and an injured eye due to a dog fight).

Along the way to Tukuyu (our project site) we had the chance to drive through Mikumi National Park. There we saw many of the exciting wildlife of Africa (you can't come all this way and not see some!) including impalas, giraffes, warthogs, elephants, wildebeests, zebras and lots of birds. The lions were clearly scared of us which is why they chose not to say hi.

Cheers,

Adam and Monica