Semasa berkarier di Direktorat Kesehatan Hewan, Direktorat Jenderal Peternakan, Departemen Pertanian, saya mendapatkan beasiswa tugas belajar dari FAO untuk mengikuti pendidikan S2 di University of Reading Inggris tahun 1984 – 1986 dan memperoleh gelar Master of Phylosophy (MPhil) di bidang epidemiologi veteriner.
Penelitian S2 saya berkaitan dengan penyakit mastitis pada sapi perah yang dilakukan di wilayah Kabupaten Boyolali, Jawa Tengah selama satu tahun (1984/85) dan dalam penelitian ini saya mendapatkan dukungan dari proyek OMAF/CIDA Disease Investigation Centre. Thesis saya berjudul “The Epidemiology and Economics of Mastitis in Smallholder Dairy Farms in Central Java, Indonesia”.
Pendidikan S2 di University of Reading dilakukan oleh satu unit yang ada dibawah Faculty of Food and Agriculture yang dinamakan VETERINARY EPIDEMIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS RESEARCH UNIT (VEERU). Sebelumnya saya mengikuti terlebih dahulu kursus di University of Reading selama 1 bulan yaitu Course of Studies on Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics tahun 1983.
Pembimbing Master/S2 saya adalah Dr Peter Ellis yang menjadi pendiri VEERU tahun 1977 dan orang pertama yang memperkenalkan dan mengembangkan epidemiologi dan ekonomi veteriner kepada dunia.
Sebelumnya Dr Ellis menjadi pembimbing PhD/S3 dari Dr Roger Morris, seorang dokter hewan Australia yang dahulu menjadi tenaga pengajar di University of Melbourne. Selama periode 1981-86, Dr. Roger Morris mengajar sebagai Professor of Veterinary Medicine dan Ketua Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences di University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, Amerika Serikat. Setelah itu selama periode 1986-2008, beliau pindah menjadi Professor of Animal Health di Massey University, Selandia Baru. Dr Roger Morris adalah salah seorang ahli epidemiologi dan ekonomi veteriner yang terkemuka di dunia.
Professor Roger Morris adalah orang yang kemudian menjadi pembimbing S3 saya di Massey University, Selandia Baru setelah saya mendapatkan beasiswa tugas belajar dari NZ ODA untuk pendidikan S3 tahun 1990 – 1995 dan memperoleh gelar Phylosophy Doctor (PhD) juga di bidang epidemiologi veteriner.
Selama tiga tahun, saya melakukan penelitian di wilayah Nusa Tenggara Barat dan Nusa Tenggara Timur yang dikaitkan dengan survei yang disebut Cattle Health and Productivity Survey (CHAPS). CHAPS merupakan salah satu kegiatan utama proyek bantuan Australia: Eastern Island Veterinary Services (EIVS) yang sejak tahun 1990 – 1995 membantu pengembangan pelayanan kesehatan hewan di wilayah Nusa Tenggara termasuk Timor Timur (masih menjadi bagian dari Indonesia pada waktu itu). Thesis saya berjudul “The Development of an Animal Health Information System for Indonesia”.
Dr Peter Ellis adalah juga perancang dan pencetus berdirinya INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF VETERINARY EPIDEMIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS (ISVEE) pada pertemuan yang diselenggarakan di Reading tahun 1976. Dr Roger Morris adalah ketua pertama dari ISVEE yang kemudian menyelenggarakan simposium ke-dua di Melbourne, Australia.
Baca sejarah singkat tentang berdirinya VEERU dan terbentuknya ISVEE dibawah ini:
Reading: Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics Research Unit (VEERU)
Peter Ellis was the founder of the Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics Research Unit (VEERU) at the University of Reading and in many ways a pioneer in the subject of animal health economics. His interest in economics evolved from work on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in South America where he discovered that FMD epidemiology could not be separated from livestock prices and farm management systems. When Ellis returned to the UK, he worked at the Agricultural Economics Research Institute in Oxford and was introduced to benefit–cost analysis.
In 1970, Ellis moved to the University of Reading where he began an analysis of classical swine fever (CSF) eradication in the UK with finance from the Wellcome Foundation and an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. This was the first study to apply cost-benefit analysis techniques to an animal disease appraisal. The success of this study led to the interest in carrying out a similar one for brucellosis eradication in England and Wales.
During these early works on animal health economics in the UK, Roger Morris had been working at the Veterinary School of the University of Melbourne on various aspects of economics with particular emphasis on the economics of production disease.
Ellis and Morris met at a meeting convened by WHO in 1970 in Geneva to discuss approaches to evaluating the control of zoonoses. Morris went to Reading on a sabbatical in 1972 where Ellis and Morris consolidated their views, which were presented at a follow-up workshop for WHO in Reading. This workshop produced a four- or five-page working document, which, though never formally published, was widely distributed as a guideline for international project evaluations.
Morris completed his thesis for Master's from the University of Melbourne. He did his PhD supervised by Ellis in which he explored complementary methodology including the applications of risk analysis and chaos theory. He is the one of the leading veterinary economist in the world and was co-editor of a book on animal health economics. Now, Roger Morris is based at Massey University, New Zealand.
Morris during his sabbatical also collaborated with UK-practising vets in studying the oestrus behaviour in dairy cows. Morris lent a computer program which was modified to become ‘Melbread’ and later the DAISY information system which provided the basis for assessing the loss from infertility.
Demand for help from the European Economic Council/European Union (EEC/EU) and support for research from the Overseas Development Administration of the British Government, now DfID, resulted in the development of an interdisciplinary team that was in 1975 designated as VEERU. The early contributors to this group were Andrew James (economist), Nick Putt (veterinarian), Alexandra Shaw (economist), Lindsay Tyler (veterinarian), Dick Esselmont (farm management), Tony Woods (statistician), Andrew Stephens (veterinarian), Richard Matthewman (animal production), Howard Pharo (veterinarian) and at a later stage James Hanks (animal production), Anni McLeod (economist) and Jackie Leslie (economist).
In 1975, an increasing number of research students encouraged VEERU to establish a formal training programme, which offered short courses in epidemiology and economics and could be combined with research leading to an MPhil or a PhD degree. Later a specific MSc was offered. Many students from all over the world have passed through these courses.
The VEERU policy was to develop teams through studies and collaborative projects in different countries and to build around them training schemes for middle management in veterinary and livestock services. These initiatives have been supported by ODA, German Aid, Danish Aid, the British Council, FAO, OIE and the World Bank and many other agencies and involved a continuing series of visits to countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Asia by various combinations of staff.
In 1976, Ellis invited all the professionals he knew who were interested in veterinary epidemiology and economics to come to Reading for an exchange of ideas. About 80 people attended the meeting and the proceedings provided a reference document, which was very widely distributed.
The main result of that meeting was the creation of the International Society of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE) and a plan to hold meetings every 3 years. Morris was elected Chairman and offered Australia as the venue for the next meeting. Shortly after this meeting, the Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (SVEPM) was founded in the UK and similar societies were created in France and other countries.
The VEERU major contributions were in the early use in scientific studies of:
● cost–benefit analysis techniques;
● herd models (CLIPPER and LPEC);
● herd monitoring systems (DAISY, EVA, MONTY, INTERHERD);
● database PANACEA:
● promoting the use of economic techniques in planning processes; and
● examining economic impact across different levels of society.
[extracted from THE ECONOMICS OF ANIMAL HEALTH AND PRODUCTION by Jonathan Rushton, 2009]