Vet Med Students 2010 Study Abroad in Germany

We arrived safely at the Hotel Bischofshol in Hannover, where we spent the next few days.

Professor Hansjoachim Hackbarth, an expert on animal welfare and one of the professors that was going to teach us during our trip (incidentally, also Dr. Hoenig's classmate from veterinary school) picked us up at the hotel and we all went to see downtown Hannover. It was a very hot day.

My day began with a 6am wake up. After getting ready, I had breakfast and went for a walk on the paths in the forest behind our hotel. The hotel provided a beautiful breakfast buffet with cheese, meats, breads, eggs, cereals, juices and coffee. The walk in the forest was refreshing and full of bicyclists on their way to school and work.

We began our morning by having breakfast at our hotel in Hannover. Some of the students ran or walked in the forest preserve before or after breakfast. Then we all loaded in the van to head to the veterinary college in Hannover.

We started off the morning not knowing exactly what to expect. On our way to a slaughterhouse south of Hanover, I wondered how it would compare and contrast to the abattoirs I had seen in the States.

This morning we traveled to the Verden District on the Aller River to visit the Mobile Infectious Control Center. Since a large part of my internship with the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) last summer involved emergency response planning, I was excited to see what was involved with disaster planning in Germany. When we arrived, I found that the location was pretty much what I expected: a series of trailers and warehouses surrounding a mostly-empty parking lot. It seemed pretty desolate during our visit, but of course that extra space is necessary during an emergency.

This morning we had our breakfast in Hannover (the usual), then loaded up the vans and hit the road. Tschss Hannover! We started heading west towards Dr. Helmut Surborgs practice in Wahrenholz. Dr. Surborg is a large animal practitioner and also a Representative at the Lower Saxony Veterinary Association. We arrived at his home, which also houses the small animal practice that his wife runs.

On our own, we set out to explore Berlin in different groups. Five of us took a bus tour to see the sites. The City Circle Bus Tour was a hop-on/hop-off individual tour that made 16 stops around the city. We started at Checkpoint Charlie. President Kennedy ordered it built along with two other checkpoints, Alpha and Bravo, after the Berlin Wall was built. At the checkpoints, allied forces could enter West Berlin.

A lovely Sunday started with the typical scrumptious German hotel breakfast before heading out for the day. The plan was to take a bicycle tour of sites important to Third Reich history. Fortunately, the bicycle shop also offered rather cheap laundry, so one of our companions took us up on the opportunity to have some clothes cleaned.

Today, we left early in the morning Destination: Greifswald and the Isle of Riems! After our drive and lunch at a local restaurant Waldeslust, we headed to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) what would be equivalent to the Center of Disease Control (CDC) in the United States/Plum Island, Professor Thomas Mettenleiter, President of the Institute, greeted us and gave us a brief history on the Isle of Riems, the virus research conducted on the island, biosecurity issues, and on Friedrich Loefflers important discoveries (founder of the Institute).

Tuesday, June 15, found us still on the beautiful island of Riems, attending a day of lectures on foreign animal diseases at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute. As most of the group is interested in food safety, zoonotic diseases, and epidemiology, this day was fascinating and flew by. We started off the morning with African Swine Fever (Dr. Sandra Blome) over coffee, juice, and cookies. A fine combination.

Today began with a visit to Riemser Arzneimittel AG, a mid-sized pharmaceutical company near the Riems Island. From 1910-1990, the company was the commercial portion of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute Riems Island and has been its own entity since then. The company was originally founded to produce the foot and mouth disease vaccine that had been developed on the island. Now, the foot and mouth vaccine is produced and stored on the island itself, and Riemser has shifted its focus to other products.

Today the group visited the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) which is located in Berlin, in an area that has a very long history (the church near the campus was built around the 13th century by the Crusade-era Templar knights).

Our last day in Germany, sadly, but it was a good way to end an amazing trip. In the morning we visited the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin, named for the physician who discovered the bacterium that causes tuberculosis and is considered by many to be one of the fathers of microbiology. Professor Klaus Stark gave us an introduction to what they do at the institute.

Back in Chicago! Thanks to our program sponsors: GERMAN ACADEMIC EXCHANGE SERVICE; BOEHRINGER-INGELHEIM VETMEDICA; NESTLE PURINA; CIBER, EU CENTER AND CENTER FOR GLOBAL STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.