University of Otago researcher Prof Frank Griffin scans the
results of a paralisa test which reveals the presence of
Johne's disease in deer serum. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
Widely-respected deer-health researcher, the University
of Otago's Prof Frank Griffin, has been awarded the Royal
Society of New Zealand's Pickering Medal, the country's top
award for achievement in technology.
Prof Griffin, who heads the university's microbiology and
immunology department, received the medal at an annual
research honours celebration ceremony hosted by the Royal
Society in Christchurch last week.
It is the first time this award, for "excellence and
innovation in the practical application of technology", has
been won by an Otago University researcher.
Award organisers noted Prof Griffin had for three decades led
an Otago University-based research team devoted to solving
animal health problems in the deer industry.
The award was for his "contribution to work in developing
diagnostics tests" for detecting two major bacterial diseases
of New Zealand deer, bovine tuberculosis and Johne's disease,
and a vaccine for the prevention of yersiniosis in deer,
society officials said.
The products and services were estimated to have saved the
deer industry between $80 million and $90 million in
production that would otherwise have been lost to the
diseases, officials said.
Prof Griffin was "very humbled" by the recognition provided
by his scientific peer group.
The medal reflected the supportive approach to research taken
by New Zealand's innovative deer industry, including key
early financial support by James Innes, a former owner of
Haldon Station, near Fairlie, and a leading deer industry
entrepreneur.
Prof Griffin also paid tribute to strongly collaborative work
by AgResearch scientists over the past 30 years.
Award officials noted Prof Griffin had inspired and led a
group which had developed a series of diagnostic tests for
tuberculosis in deer that were more sensitive and specific
than the skin test used to screen deer.
These tests had been available for farmers since 1990 and had
"helped reduce the incidence of the disease to very low
levels in New Zealand deer".
A vaccine to protect young deer from yersiniosis had been
developed by Prof Griffin in collaboration with Dr Colin
Mackintosh and Dr Bryce Buddle of AgResearch.
The vaccine had been registered in 1992 and its use had
eliminated the disease as a major economic constraint to
production for farmers.
Over the past decade, Johne's disease had become the largest
single constraint to increased productivity in the national
deer herd.
The development by Prof Griffin's laboratory of a series of
tests meant infected animals could be identified early and
removed from the herd.
Prof Griffin's advice on livestock diseases and their control
was widely sought overseas, including by authorities at the
Kruger National Park in South Africa, who had wanted to help
combat the spread of bovine tuberculosis from buffalo to
lions and other wildlife species.
- john.gibb@odt.co.nz
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