Sofía Ocaña has been awarded for the best oral communication at the International Epidemiology Symposium

The International Epidemiology Symposium was held at ULiège from 17 to 19 April. The theme of the symposium, organised to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the Association of Epidemiology and Health (AESA), was "Horizon scanning in veterinary epidemiology".

Several scientific communications were presented, including one by Sofía Ocaña. Ms Ocaña, who has been studying for a doctorate in veterinary science at ULiège since 2021, has been awarded an ARES mobility grant to carry out part of her research in Belgium under the supervision of Professor Claude SAEGERMAN. The other part of her research is being carried out in Ecuador, La Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas (ESPE) under the supervision of Professor Sarah MARTIN SOLANO.

Sofía talks about in a few words

ULiège : What is your scientific communication about ?

Sofía : The scientific communication presented at the AESA Symposium was entitled "Sweet stingless beekeeping from the middle of the world", which was part of my Ph.D. thesis development on Ecuadorian stingless bees. These bees are effective pollinators of native flora in the Tropics of the world. Their breeding and management is called Meliponiculture. During the presentation, I shared some results of my research on flora identification using pollen by scanning electron microscopy and barcoding, as well as some results on the evaluation of good management practices in Meliponiculture from an epidemiological perspective.

ULiège : What does your stay in Belgium and more specifically at ULiège provided you the most for your research ?

Sofía : My stay has contributed most to my research is the training and strengthening of my ability to approach and solve problems in a holistic way. The knowledge acquired here can be translated and applied to the reality of my country (Ecuador) and contribute in some way to the sustainable development of this practice with stingless bees.