News

The Research Grants Council (RGC) has recently announced the results of the 2024–25 funding exercise of the General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS). Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health (PH) was awarded HK$6.8 million in total.

Inherent Nature executed by members of CityU, Wildlife Illustrations Hong Kong, partnering with the HK Biodiversity Museum at HKU, and funded by Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, Croucher Foundation, and CityU - was organised to bring the conversation of illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade to the Hong Kong public. The successful opening event on Saturday 11 May 2024, brought together over 60 artists, scientists, and members of the public from across Hong Kong, and was opened by Dr Chloe Hatten (CityU), Dr Viktoriia Kamska (CityU), and Nicole Kit (Wildlife Illustrations Hong Kong) - curators, producers, directors and contributors to the event, with top animal crime lawyer in Hong Kong, Prof Amanda Whitfort, professor at HKU, providing the opening speech.

The first ever Interdisciplinary Conversations on Wildlife Trade (ICWT) conference was held successfully by the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health (PH), CityU, co-organised by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) at Tai Kwun, Central, Hong Kong, last week (13-14 May, 2024). This world-class event brought together members from the Hong Kong government, the UN, academics, NGOs, and other regional government and forensic institutions, including the US Fish & Wildlife Department Services, PERHILITAN Malaysia, Sarawak Forestry Corporation, Sabah Wildlife Department, IBER Vietnam, and the Australian Museum, in a hybrid, international and multi-disciplinary 2-day conference to discuss illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade within Hong Kong, and regionally. 

Researchers supervised by Dr. Kai Liu and Dr. Kate Flay made an impressive mark at the Huawei Developer Competition 2023 – Asia Pacific. Their exceptional work earned them the 2nd Runner-up position, reflecting their commitment to innovative research and development.

The Aquatic Animal Team is researching technologies that can improve water quality, such as the application of nanobubbles in seawater, freshwater and circulating system farming. Preliminary research has found that in addition to effectively and rapidly increasing dissolved oxygen. Nanobubbles may also help the growth of probiotics! The team will continue to research and test technologies that can improve water quality and the health of farmed fish.

We are delighted to share that five PH faculty members, including Professor Patrick Butaye, Professor Dirk Pfeiffer, Professor Olivier Sparagano, Professor Mason Dean, and Professor Ming Wai Kit, are ranked as the World’s Top 2% most-cited scientists 2023 by Stanford University. This recognition reflects the high academic standards of our faculty members and our outstanding research performance.

Mr. Zhaojin Guo, the graduate of MSc in Public Health and Epidemiology and the Part-time Research Assistant for Prof. LIU Kai, wins the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper and Presentation Award at the 2023 International Symposim on Animal Environment and Welfare (ISAEW) in Chongqing, China. The title of his paper and presentation is “DeMVpp-YOLO: A lightweight pig behavior detection model for improved pig health management in farrowing pens”.

City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and the Agriculture Fisheries Conservation Department of the government of Hong Kong in 2018 initiated a subsidized aquatic animal veterinary service to help small stakeholder farmers improve their fish production and reduce the use of antibiotics on farms.

PH organized the Annual Retreat on 27 Jun 2023 at Cordis Hong Kong. The event provided an opportunity to boost the connections among PH colleagues away from daily business and to develop actions in line with the PH operational plan.

Prof. Ibrahim Elsohaby has been awarded the Kei-ichiro Maeda Memorial Award for 2023 for research into “Healthy People, Healthy Animals: The Power of One Health in Tacking Public Health Threats”