Last week Dr Eric Morgan, a scientist from Bristol University’s School of Veterinary Sciences, visited Tashkent for a round table with the Academy of Sciences in Uzbekistan. The topic was animal parasites and the impact on their prevalence and transmission of climate change. I spent a fascinating morning listening to Dr Morgan speaking about the transmission of parasites among and between wild and domestic animals, the methods used to study these processes – a combination of high tech tracking and old fashioned observation – and ways of responding to problems created by changing climate, sometimes as simple as shearing sheep earlier in the year so that at the time when pests are multiplying most rapidly they don’t find safety buried in thick wool. His research examples ranged from tracking dogs running around woodland areas in Bristol to working with wild saiga antelope populations in Central Asia (which are an extraordinary story in themselves, although one that is under threat from illegal hunting) . The presentation was followed by a lively discussion before the next formal speaker, Academician Azimov of the Institute of the Gene Pool of Plants and Animals of Uzbekistan.
It’s often said that art and music are universal, but it’s as true of science. This was a good example. The event brought together specialists from two countries dealing with the same questions, and although a lot of the discussion was through interpreters it was clear that the two sides had a shared frame of reference and a shared set of interests and concerns.
I hope this will be the beginning of greater co-operation at the research level between the UK and Uzbekistan. I’m pleased that co-operation between academic and educational institutions in our two countries now extends from primary school – where the British Council are supporting the Uzbek Ministry of Public Education in extending English language teaching – all the way to post-doctoral research. I look forward to seeing more of this over the next months and years.