Visionary vet receives Future Award

A scientist who helps run a cutting-edge research centre that studies camel, falcon and equine diseases has been handed a major award.

Renate Wernery, a virologist at Dubai's Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL), has been given a Future Award by German company Trapp Networks.

Wernery, a member of the CVRL when it was founded in 1985, is the first person outside Europe to receive the award, which was presented during Arab Health 2005. "I am humbled by it," Wernery said. "It is a very special achievement and I am very pleased by it."

Trapp Networks, which helps to promote small and medium-sized firms in international markets, has presented Future Awards to people in Europe for the past 10 years.

Ulrike Trapp, managing director of the company, chooses people who have been involved with major projects that promote international cooperation and understanding.

"Dubai can be thought of as the new world of today. It has an excellent future, so it's a good place in which to present a future award," Trapp said.

CVRL was founded with the support of General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defence.

It is a diagnostic centre for a wide range of veterinary diseases and, in conjunction with a centre in Germany, has developed vaccines against a number of illnesses. CVRL, which Wernery helped found with her husband, now employs more than 80 people representing 14 nationalities.

Dozens of scientific papers and books have been written by people at CVRL.

"For example, we check each and every horse that flies in and out of the UAE," said Wernery, who is CVRL's public relations manager. In 1997, the European Union approved CVRL to carry out pre-export tests on horses.

"We look after the camels of the ruling family of Dubai, and other people send samples for us to analyse. We are the world centre for camel diseases. We have also developed a camel pox vaccine, for example that is just one of the things we have done," Wernery said.

The centre has also carried out research into camel milk and has developed vaccines against diseases in falcons.

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