Mrs. June Roach, an Agricultural Officer (Animal Health), has received the Inter-American Agricultural Award for Young Professionals in recognition of her "distinguished work" in research on Leptospirosis in animals and Bluetongue disease.

She has benefited from special training in a laboratory in Argentina, which is renowned for its research in leptospirosis. She was responsible for the early work in leptospirosis in animals in Barbados working out of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the Pine.

Mrs. Roach, the wife of Mr. Leroy Roach, Permanent Secretary, Economic Affairs Division in the Prime Minister's Office, is the author of one scientific paper on leptospirosis and a co-author of five other leptospirosis publications as well as two on Bluetongue disease.

Her leptospirosis research on animals includes the first isolation of the Fort Bragg strain outside of the United States. In 1980 she identified a new type of leptospirosis, now called Bim, which has so far been discovered only in Barbados. It was isolated during a survey of leptospirosis in stray dogs. This strain has since been found in human cases in Barbados by Dr. Christopher Everard, of the Medical Research Council and a team of Barbadian researchers.

Mrs. Roach, who has been with the Veterinary Diagnostic laboratory since its inception in 1970, tested for Blue tongue in serum samples from cattle, sheep and goats in nine Caribbean countries including Barbados. The project was sponsored by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), which grants the award.

Barbadian sheep farmers have said that the results of the survey helped to reopen the export trade in Black Belly Sheep and was therefore of direct benefit to them.

The Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory enjoys a high reputation in the region and beyond.

Based on a 1985 survey by the North Carolina State University's School of Veterinary Medicine, commissioned by the Caribbean Community Secretariat, the report describes the Laboratory as "a busy, active and well-managed facility".

A Food and Agriculture Organization report to the Barbados Government, on an International Meat Development Scheme and an International Scheme for the Coordination of Dairy Development, speaks of the Laboratory's "excellent record of research and hard work with limited staff and facilities."

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