Vet-2011 : the future of veterinary medicine and more...

Vet-2011 : the future of veterinary medicine

“Happy birthday and my very best wishes for the next 250 years.” With these words Mr John Dalli, EU Commissioner for “health and consumers” formally opened the celebration of World Veterinary Year Vet-2011.

The opening ceremony took place at the historical site of Versailles, the former residence of the French kings. It was here that 250 years ago Mr Claude Bourgelat managed to convince king Louis XV to set up the first veterinary school: a landmark in the development of veterinary education and the veterinary profession.

Many distinguished speakers, including WVA President Tjeerd Jorna, OIE Director General Bernard Vallat, WHO General Director Margaret Chan, and FAO Director General Jacques Diouf took the floor and highlighted the importance of veterinary medicine for the health and welfare of animals and people. Also UNESCO and IUCN (the international Union for Conservation of Nature) emphasized the role they see for the veterinary profession.

WVA President, Tjeerd Jorna said that it is not easy to overestimate the importance of Claude Bourgelat’s initiatives. “His work initiated the birth of veterinary education and the birth of the veterinary profession throughout the world. Bourgelat has laid the cornerstone for the development of veterinary medicine as a Global Good.” Interesting to note are the initiatives Bourgelat took in the field of comparative pathobiology. In fact he promoted the current One Health concept far avant la lettre.

President Jorna complimented the organisers and encouraged everyone to join in celebrating Vet-2011. It offers an excellent opportunity to communicate about the broad range of contributions of the veterinary profession in all it diversity to our society. “Only by being good and by being clear we will be able to keep the necessary societal support”, he said. Over the past 250 years much has been achieved; let it be the inspiration for the continuing development of the veterinary profession: a profession to be proud of!!

Two former WVA presidents Herbert Schneider and Apostolos Rantsios, several WVA-Councilors and many representatives of WVA member organisations as well as WVA executive secretary Jan Vaarten attended the opening event.

World Veterinary Year Photographic Competition

Source:

Please see the link below where you will find a clip to promote our World Veterinary Year photographic competition that we're organising together with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) as part of celebrations for the World Veterinary Year 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbGVq-wTPQc

For more info on our joint EC/OIE activities, and to view or download our 6 video clips for World Veterinary Year, you can go this website:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/information_sources/world_vet_ye...
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/information_sources/videos_ahw_e...

Captive elephant welfare study under way

Source:
February 1, 2011
A federally funded study will produce the first comprehensive measurements of elephant well-being and identify management changes that improve elephant welfare.

A three-year, first-of-its-kind study commenced in December for the purpose of producing data that will be used to determine best practices in zoo elephant management.

The study, Using Science to Understand Elephant Welfare, is supported by an $816,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and will involve the entire population of 290 elephants housed in institutions accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Yellow fever in Côte d'Ivoire

Source:
WHO is responding to an outbreak of yellow fever in the Côte d'Ivoire. So far a total of 64 suspected cases and 25 deaths have been identified. The Ministry of Health of Côte d'Ivoire has started an emergency vaccination campaign targeting over 840 000 people aged nine months and older, with support from WHO and UNICEF.

Read the fact sheet on yellow fever

American Medical Association (AMA) President and Leading Florida Department of Health (USA) Officials Discuss One Health at North American Veterinary Conference

Source:

The physician President of the American Medical Association (AMA), Cecil B. Wilson, MD, a strong One Health advocate, and three prominent One Health leaders from the Florida Department of Health (USA) gave insightful and inspiring presentations at the recent North American Veterinary Conference (NAVC) evening One Health panel session in Orlando, Florida on January 17, 2011. A brief Q & A period after the presentations yielded cogent and useful explanations for various One Health items of interest and queries from the audience.

Dr. Wilson reasserted the AMA’s strong support for the One Health concept before a group of veterinarians at a meeting aimed primarily at private practitioners of veterinary medicine. Wilson was very positive about the need for interdisciplinary collaborations and communications between physicians and veterinarians. He pointed out the historic passage of a “One Health” resolution at the AMA’s 2007 meeting in Chicago.

Border collie comprehends over 1,000 object names as verbal referents

Source:
Researchers at Wofford College discovered that a border collie comprehends the names of over 1,000 objects, differentiating between names of objects and orders to fetch them. This research deepens the findings of researchers in Germany, who had discovered a dog that knew the names of a couple of hundred objects.

Important questions were left open as to how far a dog could go, and whether the dog really understood that the object names were nouns and not commands to retrieve the object. John Pilley and Alliston Reid answered two central questions with their research: How large can a dog's vocabulary become if given extensive training? What do dogs actually understand when we use human language to communicate with them?

These findings are published in the Elsevier journal Behavioural Processes.

Researchers discover way to halt lung inflammation in animal models

Source:
Acute inflammation of the lung is a poorly recognized human disease that develops in surprising and unexpected ways. The acute lung injury (ALI) or adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a vital new concern for soldiers, but it can develop in anyone during a systemic infection, after severe trauma, as a result of bone fracture, following severe burns and in many other ways as well-- the initial cause may have nothing apparent to do with the lung itself.

However, an answer to halting lung inflammation may have been discovered, thanks to a University of Colorado School of Medicine researcher and his team. Recent studies show that between 60,000 and 100,000 people die each year in the United States from ALI/ARDS, more than twice as many fatalities as those from breast cancer.

Recognition that the disease represents an uncontrolled inflammation of the lung has led to some important developments for treatment but even today mortality hovers around 60 percent for those people in whom the disease was identified early enough to initiate treatment.

More Recent Articles