Dr. Abel Wade
Dr. Abel Wade, is actually the Director General of Laboratoire National Veterinaire (LANAVET) in Cameroon. He is an Expert in Molecular Medical Microbiology with more than 20 years of experience on animal diseases surveillance (field sample collection on domestic and wildlife including bats) and zoonosis.
Visiting Postgraduate lecturer at the Biotechnology Center and also at the department of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, he has coordinated several projects and managed several research activities and grants from the IAEA, FLI and DFG, DTRA and more recently, the LEAP-Agri for the African European collaborative research team on Sustainable Agriculture and Aquaculture and on Food and Nutrition Security with grant or the research of 8 new arboviruses in Cameroon including new diagnostic (ELISA & real time PCR) assay development.
Furthermore, his research capacity has made him to be part of the worldwide team in charge of developing a candidate vaccine for African swine fever, a pig disease of no vaccine and no treatment till today. With more than 30 scientific publications, he has also participated in developing and validating diagnostic tools for infectious diseases with a recognition price from FAO/IAEA joint division in 2013. His scientific sounded capacity was once more demonstrated, among others, by the early detections and management of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1 and H5N8) outbreaks in Cameroon during 2016-2017. He stands as the first African to have loaded the full genomes of the H5N8 gene into the genbank.
Many times, Experts with IAEA, DTRA-CBEP, USAID and FAO in several domains (regional training courses, Project managements, consultancies) in Africa and Europe, his position as OIE focal point for laboratories in Cameroon and a multi-sectorial One Health expert makes him to be one of the best young scientists in sub-Sahara Africa for any laboratory research activities in animal health and zoonosis. He was able to benefit from DTRA grant for the total renovation of LANAVET Annex Yaoundé and soon Douala and Garoua. He set up a P3-light laboratory in Yaoundé here he does isolate non zoonotic viruses. This renovation has transformed LANAVET to be one of the best governmental veterinary public laboratory in Sub-Sahara Africa.