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Former RCVS President, Professor Sandy Trees, will be appointed to the House of Lords as a non-party-political (cross-bench) peer, following recommendation by the House of Lords Appointments Commission

“I am delighted to hear that Professor Sandy Trees has been appointed to the House of Lords,” commented Dr Jerry Davies, RCVS President.

“I know that he will not only represent the profession on all matters of veterinary science, veterinary education, animal welfare and public health, but as a cross-bencher, he will also bring a breadth of experience to bear on issues outside the immediate interests of our profession.

"He is a well informed and articulate advocate of whom the profession can be rightly proud.”

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Animals must be included in our disaster planning and response systems, according to Dr Ian Dacre from the World Society of Protection of Animals (WSPA). Next week at the national Australian Veterinary Conference in Canberra, Dr Dacre will demonstrate how veterinarians can help when disaster strikes.

Dr Dacre, a global disaster management expert, has worked throughout the Asia-Pacific region to rescue animals following natural disasters most recently including the Bangkok floods 2011, Japan’s tsunami 2011, Queensland floods 2011, Fiji cyclone Thomas 2010 and Haiti’s earthquake 2010.

At the conference, Dr Dacre will show that a growing world population and higher demand for food animals make the role of the vet even more critical in minimising the impact of natural disasters.

Presently around 60 billion animals are used to produce food around the world each year and this number could double by 2050. The majority of this increase in production is forecast to come from intensive, indoor livestock systems. This makes disasters even more disastrous if plans to counteract them are not put in place at the earliest possible opportunity with vets at the centre of the planning.

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IN considering the report of the Veterinary Development Council (VDC), which was published last week, it is worth remembering how the council came about. The council was set up in 2011 on the basis of a recommendation in a report called ‘Unlocking potential’ by Philip Lowe, which discussed the role of veterinary expertise in food production. The Lowe report had been commissioned because of concerns, highlighted by the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee in 2003, that there might not be enough large animal vets available to fulfil the aims of the UK Animal Health and Welfare Strategy, particularly in areas of low livestock density, where the economics of farming and practice were such that provision of farm veterinary services might no longer be viable. There were also concerns that the problem could be exacerbated by government plans to transfer more of the costs of animal health to the industry.

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I write here to share our work on the World Veterinary Day 2012 in coastal villages in Kutch, India. The Corbett Foundation is a registered trust working in the field of wildlife and conservation and runs three veterinary clinics to provide veterinary cover to animals in 120 coastal villages off the western coast in India.

On 28th April, the veterinary team organized veterinary treatment camps in coastal areas near Pingleshwar. 118 animals (cows and calves) were treated for various problems including ticks, worms, wounds and malnutrition. Posters detailing the methods of clean milk production and proper care of the newborn animals were displayed.

A workshop was organized on ‘ Ethics in Veterinary Profession’ at the KERC by TCF’s Veterinary Consultant Dr Naveen Pandey. The livestock inspectors attending the workshop found it informative and useful. The role played by veterinarians in the society was emphasized as well.

Dr Naveen Pandey
Veterinary Consultant
The Corbett Foundation

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We usually think of climate change in relation to the soil, air, and oceans that make up our environment. The issues raised in this context are large-scale ones: how will the planet and its various elements react when the temperature of the earth rises?

An increasingly important consequence of climate change, however, is its impact on human health—the individual lives that will be affected by issues such as air quality, extreme weather conditions, and a rise in infectious diseases following a global increase in temperatures.

While scientists and politicians shift blame unto one another over climate change, public health officials are charged with understanding the widespread health issues required to understand how this complex set of problems will be handled.

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One in three adults worldwide has high blood pressure – a condition that causes around half of all deaths from stroke and heart disease. One in 10 adults has diabetes. The growing problem of the noncommunicable diseases burden is the focus of the World health statistics 2012 report released today.

Read the press release
World health statistics 2012

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Addressing the FAO Regional Conference for the Near East today, the Director-General José Graziano da Silva proposed the creation of a Near Eastern Trust Fund to advance food security in the region.

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By Sandra Avant
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In a search to find better ways to control viral enteric diseases in birds, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have unearthed a treasure trove of previously known and unknown viruses in poultry by using a powerful new molecular tool called metagenomics.

Each year, disorders like poult enteritis mortality syndrome, poult enteritis complex, and runting-stunting syndrome cause diarrhea in turkeys and chickens, resulting in decreased weight, mortality and increased production costs. Several viruses have been associated with enteric or intestinal diseases, but no single causative agent has been found.

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A recent discovery of "hypervirulent" Salmonella bacteria has given UC Santa Barbara researchers Michael Mahan and Douglas Heithoff a means to potentially prevent food poisoning outbreaks from these particularly powerful strains. Their findings have been published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
Salmonella is the most common cause of infection, hospitalization, and death due to foodborne illness in the U.S. This burden may continue to worsen due to the emergence of new strains that would tax current health-control efforts. To address this problem, researchers sought out -- and found -- hypervirulent strains that present a potential risk to food safety and the livestock industry.

An international team of scientists -- which also included Robert Sinsheimer and William Shimp from UCSB; Yi Xie and Bart Weimer from UC Davis; and John House from University of Sydney, Australia -- conducted a global search for hypervirulent Salmonella strains.

They were found among isolates derived from livestock, and rendered current vaccines obsolete. Bacteria behave like a Trojan Horse, exposing their weapons only after initiating infection. "These strains exhibit this behavior in the extreme -- essentially having a '5th gear' they can switch to during infection," said Heithoff, lead author of the paper.

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