University of Queensland Emeritus Professor Peter Spradbrow has been honoured for his long dedication to improving life in developing countries by developing a simple vaccine for the killer poultry virus Newcastle disease.
Professor Spradbrow has been chosen as one of five finalists in the Accenture Economic Development category of the annual awards presented by the California-based The Tech Museum of Innovation.
A panel of international judges assembled by The Center for Science, Technology and Society at Santa Clara University chose Professor Spradbrow and the four other finalists in the Economic Development category from a field of 460 candidates from 56 countries.
During a career spanning more than 20 years in the University’s School of Veterinary Science, he spearheaded research enabling heat-resistant Newcastle disease vaccines to be produced in remote rural centers through a simple process of cultivating the virus inside locally laid fertile eggs.
Professor Spradbrow also ran workshops showing workers in rural laboratories how to make the vaccine themselves.
The master seed for the vaccine was produced at the John Francis Virology Laboratory at the UQ Veterinary Science Farm at Pinjarra Hills.
While vaccines existed for commercial flocks of chickens, these were heat sensitive and only available in large doses of perhaps 1000 shots, which was wasteful and expensive for family-owned flocks of 10 to 25 birds.
His efforts have assisted in the fight against Newcastle disease in Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Senegal, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka
“Quite often flocks of scavenging chickens are all poor people have. They are kept for food, for cultural, social and perhaps medicinal purposes, as a source of savings and especially for barter,” Professor Spradbrow said.
Professor Spradbrow praised the University and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research for their financial support and humanitarian approach to his work.
“They agreed with me that there should be no attempt at commercial exploitation of the vaccine at the expense of the rural poor in developing countries,” he said.
Working with UniQuest’s International Project Division, Professor Spradbrow has developed and delivered projects through international aid agencies to developing countries. UniQuest is The University of Queensland’s technology commercialisation company.
As a finalist in The Tech Museum Awards 2002 Professor Spradbrow will attend the awards evening in San Jose on November 7, where one Tech Laureate from five categories each wins $US50, 000.
“Should I win the prize, the funds will be offered to the University to initiate a resource centre for village poultry and to sustain work with my vaccine,” Professor Spradbrow said.
Media: For further information, contact Professor Spradbrow (telephone 07 3374 1714) or Brad Turner at UQ Communications (telephoen 07 3365 2659 or 0411 610 546).
