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WVA-OIE - World Veterinary Day Award 2010
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AVMA and WebMD join forces to offer online pet informationSource: "The AVMA is concerned about the vast amount of misinformation about pet health that can be found on the Internet," explains Dr. Larry R. Corry, president of the AVMA. "Through this collaboration with an established and respected resource, we hope to give pet owners an opportunity to get accurate, sound advice about animals in general and, more specifically, about their pets." More than 20 veterinary Guest Experts are involved in the Healthy Pets Exchange to date. The Guest Experts encourage discussion and help owners ask the right questions of their pet's veterinarian to open a dialogue that can lead to the most appropriate diagnosis and treatments for their pets. "The Pet Health Exchange will help pet owners keep up to date on pet information about their pet's health, so they can provide the very best care for their animals," says Dr. Corry. "But no online community, no matter how well it is done, can ever be a substitute for the relationship between veterinarians and their clients." The link to the new Pet Health Exchange is on the upper right on the www.webmd.com, and you can also visit the new WebMD Health Pet Exchange directly at http://exchanges.webmd.com/pet-health-exchange. For any other information about veterinary medicine, please visit www.avma.org. Cattle drug may help tackle river blindnessSource: Doctors currently treat river blindness with ivermectin, a drug that kills the microfillariae and lowers the fertility of the adult worms. Ivermectin has slashed cases of blindness and lesions in countries like Senegal and Mali. But ivermectin doesn't target the nearly-mature worms that cause new infections from a black fly's bite. Instead, the drug controls the symptoms until the worms eventually die out. Scientists are still searching for a compound that would block infection altogether, for example by killing the adolescent worms upon arrival.
Bacteria toxic to wound-treating maggotsSource: Use of maggots to disinfect wounds is an ancient practice that regained popularity in the early 1990s. Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT) is now a standard procedure at wound care centres all over the world, in which sterile larvae from the green bottle fly Lucilia sericata are applied to the wound either directly or contained within a sealed nylon bag. The maggots gently ingest necrotic (dead) tissue and kill ingested bacteria in the gut. In addition, the maggots secrete antimicrobial compounds into the wound, help reduce inflammation and promote wound healing. The actual biological mechanisms responsible for the process are still largely a mystery. Read more ... Benefits of badger culling not long lasting for reducing cattle TBSource: Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a disease in cattle that has a serious financial impact on farmers in Britain, as infected animals have to be slaughtered. In 2008, 2,738 herds were infected with bTB, costing the government over £100 million. Wild badgers [Taxidea taxus, a nocturnal mammal of the weasel family] can become infected with bTB and are known to transmit the infection to cattle. Because of this, UK governments have tested various means of badger culling to control bTB infection in cattle over the past 30 years. Read more ... Vermont (USA) Pediatrician Provides Model for Advancing One Health PrinciplesSource: Dr. Trumper told Dr. Hendricks: We have been concentrating on communicating at the practitioner level of physicians and [veterinarians]. At the state society level, there was a brief One Health Initiative (OHI) presentation at the State Medical Society meeting last fall. I attended the State Veterinary Society meeting, and we now include a veterinarian presenter at the Academy of Pediatrics spring meeting and [veterinarians] are invited to all our membership meetings. To help at the local community level, we formed a joint committee that meets every 2 months or so and has developed a power point presentation on OHI that [veterinarians] can use at local hospital presentations to physicians. There have been just two talks by [veterinarians] at local hospitals so far, with two more scheduled in April. Subjects have included: "Animal Bites from the Perpetrators Point of View", "People, Pets, & Parasites," and The Raw Milk Sale Debate. We have a request for a speaker on The Ididerad, and on pet obesity and childhood obesity; a connection? The local veterinarians are invited to all these local hospital presentations and so far attendance by both groups has been gratifying. So, we have a long way to go, but our modest plans of starting at the local level, thanks to your help, are underway.” Note: The One Health team of Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP, Bruce Kaplan, DVM, Thomas P. Monath, MD and Jack Woodall, PhD strongly endorses Dr. Trumper’s model activities and hope that other visionary physicians nationally and internationally will consider following suit. Read more ...
Improving malaria diagnosis and treatmentSource: Read the news release on the new malaria guidelines
59th Annual Summer Congress - Denmark 8 Jul 2010
18 Jul 2010
"Future Challenges in Veterinary Medicine" It’s the third IVSA congress in Denmark, since the association was founded here in 1951. Application for the congress opens March 1st on congress homepage www.ivsadenmark.dk Read more ... Vets warn against dangerous dogs issue becoming party politicalSource: Responding to the announcement by the Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs that Defra will consult the public on reform of the legislation and compulsory microchipping, Professor Bill Reilly, President of the BVA, said: “The BVA has been lobbying the Government and Opposition hard for a change in dangerous dogs legislation and so we are delighted that the Government is now considering reforming the hugely unpopular and ineffective Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. “The BVA believes very strongly in the principle of deed not breed – targeting dogs for their actions, not what they look like – and we hope to see new legislation that tackles the actions of irresponsible pet owners that can cause dogs to become aggressive. Read more ... Vets welcome extension to UK pet travel protectionSource: The British Veterinary Association (BVA) and British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) have been lobbying MEPs to support the extension and have strongly welcomed this decision. The transitional arrangements allow the UK to impose stricter measures on the entry of pet animals and are designed to protect the UK from rabies, ticks and tapeworms (Echinococcus multilocularis). The vote in the European Parliament today supports an extension of these arrangements until the end of 2011 and puts in place a system so that permanent measures can be imposed in the future for entry to specific Member States based on scientific evidence. The decision will have to be ratified by the European Agriculture Council before coming into force. Commenting, Professor Bill Reilly, President of the BVA, said: “The Pet Travel Scheme affords the UK’s pet, wildlife and human populations protection from serious diseases and parasites and we have long argued for these arrangements to remain until scientific evidence can prove that the risk is manageable. “The BVA and BSAVA have worked closely with Defra to secure this extension to the arrangements and we will now be pushing for investment in additional scientific research that will give us a clearer picture of the threat of the parasite Echinococcus multilocularis and other exotic and emerging diseases.” Read more ... |
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