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BVA
Congress promises contentious issues plus!
THE
BVA Congress takes place at The Moat House Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon
this weekend.
Following the successful format of recent years, congress will
commence on Thursday 3 October with a seminar day, featuring
two half-day programmes compiled by the Veterinary Association
for Arbitration & Jurisprudence (VAAJ) and the Veterinary
Deer Society. While the VAAJ morning seminar will concentrate
on the problems encountered with employment law, the VDS afternoon
session will address various issues affecting the farming and
treatment of deer, including last year’s FMD outbreak.
The Opening and Awards Ceremony on Thursday evening will feature
addresses by the Opener, Mrs Brid Rodgers, the Northern Ireland
Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development and the BVA
president Mr Andrew Scott.
The main congress programme for Friday and Saturday features
two parallel sessions. The political forum, ‘Contentious
Issues - For the Record’, will address some of the burning
issues currently affecting the profession while, as part of
its ongoing commitment to continuing professional development,
the ‘In Practice’ programme is designed to provide
a good working knowledge of how to treat those tricky condition
that turn up on farm visits and in the surgery.
Friday’s ‘For the Record’ programme will include
‘An Audience with the Competition Commission’, designed
to give delegates the chance to speak to members of the CC about
the overall cost of practice, the real cost of providing a pharmacy
as part of a one-stop veterinary service and the constraints
on the availability of medicines, as well as ‘UK graduates
- a haemorrhaging talent?’ and ‘Coping with Practice
- what’s next?’, designed to address the many concerns
expressed of late as to the changing perspectives of young graduates
and the changing face of veterinary practice.
Surprisingly
Friday’s
simultaneous ‘In Practice’ programme is devoted
to large animals and includes sessions covering E.Coli Mastitis,
Bovine TB, Emerging Diseases in Cattle, Sheep and Pigs and
periparturient problems in the mare and foal.
Friday also features the Wooldridge Memorial Lecture by Professor
Quintin McKellar entitled ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
Saturday’s ‘For the Record’ programme commences
with ‘Environmental Concerns - Veterinary Responsibilities’,
timely in that last year’s funeral pyres have, no surprisingly,
raised the profile of animal health and public health concerns
yet again, and is followed by sessions covering the contrasting
way in which GB and France handle animal and public health
issues. There will then be three interlinked debates covering
Local Veterinary Inspectors (LVIs) and their pivotal role
in disease control, ‘Sheep on Wheels’ on the role
of controlling the movement of animals if disease is to be
controlled and a ‘FMD Lessons to be Learned’ debate
including speakers who have been involved with FMD inquiries
in Britain, Europe and internationally.
Saturday is companion animal day for the ‘In Practice’
programme and includes presentations on ‘Problem-solving
for the pruritic dog’. ‘Thoracic radiography: techniques
& interpretation’, ‘Improving survival in feline
chronic renal failure: alternatives to anabolics!’, a
‘Practical approach to wound management’ and last,
but by no means least, bearing in mind last year’s FMD
epidemic, ‘Large animal emergencies for the small animal
practitioner’.
With its combination of politics and CPD the BVA Congress
provides a unique opportunity for veterinary surgeons to extend
their knowledge and make their views known. The debates at
BVA Congress help to shape BVA policy and with Government
and European decisions continuing to have an impact on the
profession at every level, Congress provides an important
opportunity for the profession to influence developments that
will affect it directly.
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